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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Female Filosofy 



FISHED OUT AND FRIED 



PEELIX PEELER. 




ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

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Copyrighted in 1894 

BY 

Rev. L. E. Keith. 



INTRODUCTION. 




PREFACE. 



1 s a woman more unwomanly in protecting her 
children than a hen is unhenly in protecting her 
chicks ? Is it not the rooster that is unhenly in strut- 
ting around, fussing about the unhenliness of the hen 
in protecting his progeny? Is it not the man that is 
unwomanly, and unmanly too, in strutting about as 
if he were lord of creation? Is it not instinct that 
makes every mother love and w T ant to protect her 
young? Did the fathers ever possess this instinct? 
If they ever did possess it, have they kept it so 
carefully laid away in a napkin, unused until it has 
been taken from them? If it has not been taken 
from them, w x hy do they not use it to protect their 
progeny fron the Rum Curse and Rum Ruin? If 
they do not have it, or if they do have it and will 
not use it, why do they whine about a woman want- 
ing to do the most womanly thing in the world? 

Where is the consistency in allowing a woman to 
own property and take care of men's children and 
not giving her the power to protect either of them? 

Why hem her in with the home as "her sphere" 
and then with-hold from her the power by which she 
could hinder men from placing a saloon beside her 
door to ruin both? Answer: "She's nothing but 
a woman." Yours Truly, 

Until the American Eagle 
can fly with both wings, FEELIX FEELER. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I.— The Bible and Woman Suffrage. 16 

Seven Devils In Every Woman — Eastern and Western Customs 
Compared — Bible Declaration of Independence — The Bible and 
Paul are in Harmony with Woman Suffrage — Deborah, a Prophetess, 
Judge and Warrior — A Woman the First to Preach Christ to Others — 
The Bible both for and Against all Great Evils — Mrs. Parry's Reply 
to Dr. Abbott — History Repeated — Professed Friends of Christ the 
Worst Enemies of Truth, Righteousness and Humanity. 

CHAPTER II.— Disfranchises 25 

Woman's Political Equals — Inferior to Criminals and Indians. 

CHAPTER III— Rights 27 

Political Expediency Against Eternal Justice — Inequality of Laws 
Toward the Sexes — Ignorant Blacks Superior to their White Teach- 
ers — A Baptist Church the Basis of our Government— Suffrage a Nat- 
ural or Conferred Right? — Self-Governments and the Governed — 
Lunatics, Minors, Idiots and Criminals more Favored than Women — 
Sumner's Speech to enfranchise the Negro. 

CHAPTER IV.— Who are Citizens? ... 36 

Men Only in Making Laws and Drawing Salaries, but Men-and- 
Women in Obeying Laws and Paying Salaries. 

CHAPTER V.— Who are the People? . . 37 

Is a Woman a People? — Masculine Rule and Feminine Subjection — 
Inconsistencies in the " Bill of Rights." 

CHAPTER VI.— Freedom and Equality. . . 40 

Samantha Allen on the Declaration of Independence — Joshua 
Giddings brings the Republican Party to its Senses — Need of More 
such Men. 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER VII.— Men and Women. ... 43 

Both Social, but not Solitary Beings — Only Part of a Government — 
Women should Vote or Men should Not — Vote in Industrial but Not 
Civil Affairs — In Representation Women are no more thanlnfants. 

CHAPTER VIII.— Women Do Not Want to Vote. 47 

The Negro did not — Dare not Always make Wants Known — 
Sioux Indians in South Dakota Enfranchised and Women Refused — 
" Don't Want to " is no Reason — Fields Fenced for Fear Cows will 
Eat the Corn — Disfranchise Men because Others do not want to 
Vote — The Tax-Paying Half of a Citizen — Tax-payers not Repre- 
sented — Hired Men Vote away a Widow's Farm — Not True — Facts 
and Figures — More Women than Men Vote. 

CHAPTER IX.-I Guess I Can 57 

A Poem— What the Women do and Men do Not do— A $100- 
Woman Yoked to a $10-Man. 

CHAPTER X.- It is Unwomanly. . . 59 

It Stretches a Woman out of Shape — Unsightly Picture — Ballot 
Confers Power — Housewifery and Husbandry — Peggotty Anxious, 
but Barcus not Willing — More Women than Men — Whatever is Right 
is Sexless — Dangerous Intimacy of Sexes — Make Civilized Society 
Consistent — Mrs. Boardman and the Ballot — Is it Unwomanly to De- 
stroy a' Serpent About to Kill your Child? — Likewise a Saloon? — 
Home Attractive, but the Saloon more so — The Harvest Ripe, 
Reap — Protect Little Ones from Libertines — Politics not a Pool, but 
Holy Ground — Vote as well as Pray — Breckenridge and Woman 
Suffrage. 

CHAPTER XI.— It is Beyond Her Sphere. . 72 

Not Beyond it in Anything else — Merchants and Mechanics Once 
Excluded — Comical Protest — Give Botchers and Bunglers no Prefer- 
ence — Love Home First, Last and Best — The Same Coat will Not Fit 
Everybody — " A Woman in it." 

CHAPTER XII.— The Polls not a Fit Place for 

Women 80 

The Difference Between Smoking and Ladies' Cars — My Pen not 
Sufficient — Saloon in Politics as Long as Politics in the Saloon — The 
Objection Admits the Need of Woman's Refining Influence — A Plea 
for Women in Congress to Clean Up the Place. 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII.— A Woman's Place is at Home. 84 

Booze Editor's Respect to Women for not Meddling with the 
Saloon — Do what your Enemy Opposes — Last Hope of Destroying 
the Saloon — Lose Refinement by Increasing Sphere — Men Rock 
Cradles and Wash Dishes before Women Practice at the Carlisle (Pa.) 
Bar — Stupid to Take the Actual for the Possible — Women Better than 
Donkeys, but not so Good as Mules for Burdens — Things and not 
Persons — They will be Men the Next Time. 

CHAPTER XIV.— Women Don't Know Enough to 

Vote. 90 

Capable of Choosing a Spiritual Leader, but not an Assessor to 
Tax Dogs — Hire a Teacher, but not a Sheriff— Sambo and Mrs. 
Stowe — They Read more than Men — The First Female College — 
More Girls than Boys Graduate— Higher Female Education means 
Physical and Mental Ruin to Girls — Educated Women Preferable to 
Ignorant Foreigners. 

CHAPTER XV.— Women are Not Posted in Pol- 
itics 96 

Generally Better than Men — Reversing Political Platforms — Igno- 
rance Bliss and Wisdom Blister — They Talk Politics in England just 
like they Talk Temperance here. 

CHAPTER XVI.— Women Can't Fight. . . 97 

A Little Brain's Argument — Days of Feudalism — One-Fourth Ex- 
amined Physically Unfit for War — One-half of Male Voters not Phy- 
sically Able to Enforce Laws — Reform Against Nature — Lincoln's 
Testimony — Ballots and Bullets — Purse and Sword both War 
Powers — 97 Per Cent, of Russia's War Power is Purse — Purse 
more Powerful than Sword — Institutions Barbarous and Civilized — 
Dr. Wilson's Reply to Dr. Parkhurst — The Mother of Jesus at the 
Polls— Keep her both Weak and Womanly — Submit to Sin to Live — 
New York's Unfairness to School Teachers — Equal Pay for Equal 
Service — Predicted Evils have not Come — As Popular as at First. 

CHAPTER XVII.— They are Represented. . ^ 112 

They are Misrepresented — Tobacco Juice Kills Bills — Harrison's 
Disrespect for Women— Who Made the Choice? — Laws Lean To- 
ward Legislators — From New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn — 
General Influence — Twenty Years to Make Mothers and Fathers 
Equal Guardians of their Children in New York— A Boy's Worth — 
A Home's Worth — Eighty-five Years of Licensed Legislation leaves 
Woman Uncrowned, and Allows her Children to be Slain by Law, 
and She has no Power to Resist. 



1 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER XVIII.— Taxation Tyranny. (Poem.) . 120 
CHAPTER XIX.— Bad Women Only Will Vote. . 121 

Bad Men Vote — Saloons more Power in Politics than Churches — 
Testimony of Two Governors — A Challenge — If Good Men will not 
Vote Good Women Must — Bad Men's Ballots Need Counteracting— 
Enough Pancakes — What a Bad Woman and her Girls would do with 
the Ballot — A False Accusation — Confusion Confounded — Results of 
House to House Registration in Colorado — Bad and Ignorant Women 
not Register — Best Percentage in Best Districts — Boston's Report 
after Fifteen Years — Bad Women not Found where Good Women 
Are— Chicago's Report— The Best Women Want the Ballot— First 
Women's Vote in Colorado. 

CHAPTER XX.— It Will Divide Houses. . . 130 

A Division Needed — Too much One-Sided — Methodist Women 
and the Conference — Does a Man do without a Bite for every Bite a 
Woman gets? — Splice it — From Six to Eight Times as many Divorces 
Outside of Wyoming as in it During Twenty Years. 

CHAPTER XXI.— Women will Vote the Same as 

their Husbands. 1 32 

What if they Do? — More Men Join the Wife's Church than Vice 
Versa — Proof for it — A Woman whose Mission was to Marry and Re- 
form Men Politically. 

CHAPTER XXII.— It will Drive Men from the 

Polls 135 

Let Them go — The Disgruntled Elder Brother was Worse than the 
Prodigal — Most Men who Regard Women's Worth want them to 
Vote. 

CHAPTER XXIII.— Let Them Vote Once. . . 136 

Let them Bell the Cat — Was Woman Taken from Man's Backbone 
or from His Rib? 

CHAPTER XXIV.— Mothers Care for the Young. 137 

Take the Children along — Christian's God Cares for Children — So 
does the Christian's Devil — Doctors and Women Most Feared by the 
Heathen. 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXV.— Better Caucuses, Better Candi- 
dates, Better Conduct in Officers. . 138 

The Saloon Controls the Caucus, Conventions and Candidates — 
Barabbas for Congress — Bad Men not Run when Women Vote — New 
Zealand's First Experience — Scotland — Angels' Talk about our Poli- 
tics — A Preacher Converted — Protection for Her and Hers — Dealer's 
Avarice and Drunkard's Appetite— Suffrage Reforms by Dr. Crafts — 
" No Sex, no Shirks, no Simpletons in Suffrage " — Nationalized Be- 
fore Naturalized. 

CHAPTER XXVI.— School Suffrage. . . 144 

Change Teachers with Politics — Mothers Most Interested — Per 
Cent, of Male and Female Teachers — Prevention Better than Cure — 
Children More than Money — Give Women the Offices without 
Salary. 

CHAPTER XXVII.— Municipal Suffrage. . 147 

Rulers Chosen with Reference to the Ruled — Herbert Spencer's 
Views — Women Vote for Good Government — Harrison and Hopkins — 
Secure a Quiet Sabbath— Dr. Abbott's Church has not Wholly Puri- 
fied Brooklyn — Women, Waite, Breckenridge and Tammany — The 
"Boss" and "Machine" City Governments Compared — The Fool 
and his Fellow — Increase of Population, Valuation, Debt and Taxa- 
tion — Philadelphia (Pa.) Badly Paved and Cleaned — School Board 
a Political Prize — The Worst Governed Cities in Christendom — Four 
Reasons for Municipal Ballot — Women Work for the Better — Testi- 
mony to Good Results. 

CHAPTER XXVIII.-Why Women Want to Vote. 162 

What They have Done for the State — " Home Protection " in 
Illinois — Women Voted " No License," but the Council Granted it — 
Must Vote in Both Boxes— Mrs. Perkins' Eight Reasons for 
Women's Ballot. 

CHAPTER XXIX. -Duty of Women to Vote. . 172 

They are Equally Interested and Responsible with Men — All the 
Rights they Want — How did they Get Them — The Difference Be- 
tween Breckenridge and Miss Pollard— Rights only on Demand — 
Iowa Supreme Court Decides a Woman Belongs to the Man. 

CHAPTER XXX.— The Duty of Men to Let 

Women Vote 178 

For the Effect on Future Citizens — Danger to Nation — Lose Con- 
fidence in Mother— " Mother, How are You Going to Vote?" — Dr. 
Gregg's Ideas — Best Men in the World — A Grudge Against God for 
her Sex. 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XXXI.— Words About Women. . 183 

Edison's Ideas — A Woman's Invention — What a Goose ! — The 
Beacon, and the Burden of Proof on the Opponents — Too much Time 
in Voting — "Sister Marry a Nigger" — Going to Market and Vot- 
ing — What Women do do. 

CHAPTER XXXII.— Eminent Opinions on Woman 

Suffrage 188 

CHAPTER XXXIII.- How it Works Where Tried. 199 

It Elevates Politics — All Indorse it — Eight to One in Wyoming 
After Twenty Years — More Experience Less Objection — Solve the 
Southern Question — Resolutions and Recommendations by Wyo- 
ming Legislature after Twenty -five Years' Experience — Iceland's Ex- 
perience — Factors for Good in '9i. 

CHAPTER XXXIV.— Its Popularity. . . .203 

"American Woman and her Political Peers" — Change of Senti- 
ment — Thanks to Organizations, Parties, Preachers and Press — 
Oriental and Occidental Customs Compared — Women Candidates 
and Parties in '94 — National Republican Leagues Adopt and Recom- 
mend it. 






CHAPTER XXXV.— Woman Suffrage is Coming. 208 



Bound to Come — Change in Clergy — Women and their Squirrel 
Brains — Alphabet Learned — Three Periods of Growth — Ignorant 
Question. 



CHAPTER XXXVI.— A Lecture by a Woman on 

Her Rights. (A Poem.) . . . .213 

CHAPTER XXXVII.- Warning-Get on the Right 

Side 217 

Railroads not Mentioned in the Bible and are Devices of the 
Devil— Farmers' Scare — Fulton a Lunatic — " Mulkin Toime "— "We 
Killed a Bear "—All Parties Claiming Honor in Col.— Ben Hill's Re- 
grets — South Sea Islanders, Cannibalism and the World's Fair — 
Millennial Dawn — "Thee Moved." 

CHAPTER XXXVIII.— Progress by States and 

Governments 222 

Extent of Territory — Where, and how Long — Progress In Foreign 
Countries— Degrees of Suffrage in Each— Advances Elsewhere— Vote 
of National Republican Leagues. 



12 CONTENT^. 

CHAPTER XXXIX.— Progress in the Churches. 228 

Liquor Selling as Respectable as the Bible Business — Progress of 
Temperance Cause — Women Preachers and Progress of the Con- 
servatives — Missionary and Young People Societies — Equality In 
Church Soon Means Equality in State — Too much Light through the 
Windows. 

CHAPTER XL.- Progress in the Ministry. . 233 

Seventeen Denominations Ordain Women to Preach — The Good 
They Might Do — Four Hundred Looking to Mission Fields. 

CHAPTER XLI.— Progress in Medicine. . . 234 

The First Female Medical Students Ostracised — Female Doctors 
not Allowed a Sign — Statistics of the Present Condition. 

CHAPTER XLII.— Progress in Education. . . 235 

Minds Sqeezed like Chinese Infants' Feet — Plato in Petticoats — 
Mary A. Livermore's Experience — As well Educate a Cat as a Girl — 
Minds Changed — Co-Education Colleges — Harvard's Advanced 
Grounds. 

CHAPTER XLIII.— Progress in Social Relations. 242 

Occupy Thrones but not Vote — Not Control Children, Property 
or Person ; Make a Will or Enter a Profession or Business — Had to 
Plow and Pull Loads on Tramways and in Mines. 

CHAPTER XLIV.— Non-Political Progress— Prog- 
ress Everywhere but in Politics. . . 243 

CHAPTER XLV.— Female Filosofy not Far- 
fetched 244 

Virtues Wanted in Women — Virtuous Ganders — Samantha Allen's 
" One Standard for Both Sexes " — One-Sided Contract— What One 
Woman Did — Our Daughters — "Motheihood" — Girls who Sigh for 
the City — Cure for Melancholy. 

CHAPTER XL VI.— Age of Consent. ... 256 

Definition — Table of States — Consent Legalizes Immoral Acts only 
— Highest where Women Vote — A Challenge — Lewd Fellows of the 
Baser Sort — Cause of the Consent Laws — Wild Oats — Helpless Girls 
Ignored and Libertines Protected — Demand a " White Life for Two." 

CHAPTER XLVII.— Gains of Forty Years. . 263 

Hen Conventions — Brickbats and Mobs — A Hen Crow like a Cock 
in the Town Hall — Spheres Widened — First Woman Merchant — 
Little Pay — Legal Existence Suspended — No Vote in Church. 



CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER XLVIII.— Opponents to Woman Suf- 
frage. . 274 

Zang's Brewery — The same Objections to Men — Jack did not Eat 
His Breakfast — The Cholera After Little Girls only — Every Horse 
Thief a Democrat — Dr. Parkhurst in account with the Women and 
the Balance in their Favor. 

CHAPTER XLIX.-A Call to the W. C. T. U. . 280 

Shameful Civilization — Precious Youth Sacrificed to Close the 
Black Abyss — Womanhood Crystallized at the Ballot-box only will 
Heal the Festering Wound — Bible in Bosom and Ballot in Box — The 
Parting of the Ways. 

CHAPTER L.— How to Win Woman Suffrage. 284 

Agitate, Educate, Nominate, Elect — Better be Opposed than Ig- 
nored — Use the Platfcrm, Pulpit and Press — Sow Literature Knee 
Deep — Petition — Form of Petition — How Woman Suffrage was Car- 
ried in Colorado — " Nothing Impossible on Bunker Hill." 



O* v»3 been s= 7b«, 



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/^•. cJ6, £> aiiUji,* 









Thoughts of great men all remind us * * 

There's nothing original under the sun; * 

All our thoughts they have thought for us, 

L * And our hooks are nothing but theirs * " 

re-written. 



HELPERS AND HINDERERS. 



Persons, papers and publications to whom the author is 
grateful for services rendered, directly or indirectly, wisely 
or otherwisely. 

PERSONS. 

Dr. Lyman Abbott, Hon. L. G. Adams, Florence 
Adkinson, iEsop, "Samantha Allen," Charles G. Ames, 
George Bancroft, Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Bellows, M. H. 
Boardman, Dr. Buckley, Augusta Chapman, James Free- 
man Clark, Russell Conwell, Joseph Cook, Wilbur Crafts, 
G. W. Curtis, Hon. John Davis, Mr. Darling, Chauncey 
Depew, Ellen B. Dietrick, W. E. Early, Gen. E. Eastebrook, 
Judge Farrar, Benj. Franklin, J. B. Gambell, Wm. Lloyd 
Garrison, Governors of Kansas and Wyoming, E. B. G/ "Minis, 
Jennie E. Graves, Horace Greeley, Dr. Gregg, Quak^ ; Gur- 
ney, Wm. Dean Howells, Emma Hardman, Thos. Jefferson, 
Laura B. Johns, Mary Lathrop, Abraham Lincoln, Mary A. 
Livermore, Samuel J. May, Laura McCandless, Alice Moore 
McComas, V. L. McCuskey, James Otis, Dr. Parkhurst, Mrs. 
Parry, Paul, Pericles, E. M. Perkins, Florence Richards, Dr. 
Ryland, Russell Sage, Emma Playter Seabury, AnnaShaw, 
D. M. Sleethe, Sydney Smith, Mother Stewart, Lucy Stone, 
Chas. Sumner, Judge Valentine, Vandelia Varnum, Mrs. 
Briggs-Wall, Zarelda Wallace, Mary B. and Frances Willard, 
Dr. Wilson, Carroll D. Wright, Judge Waxem and a host of 
others. 

PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS. 

American Lawyer, Arena, Assembly Herald, Beacon 
(Kan.), Beacon (O.), The Bible, Christian Statesman, 
" Church Union" and "Christian Work," Corner Stone, 
Federal Constitution, Ohio Constitution, Declaration of 
Independence, Denver Dispatch, New Era, Kate Field's 
Washington, Mt. Pleasant (la.) Free Press, John Halifax 
Gentleman, Herald and Presbyter, Rawlins (Wy.) Journal, 
Ohio W. C. T. U. Messenger, Minutes of Several State 
W. C. T. XL's, The Outlook, New Zealand Prohibitionist, 
Ram's Horn, Larimie (Wy.) Sentinel, Several Suffrage 
Tracts, A True Republic, Wine and Spirit Gazette, Woman's 
Column, Woman's Journal and many others whose names 
are forgotten. 



THE BIBLE AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 



JljL J an y men misinterpret the Bible, especially 
*• when they have a poor cause. An ignorant 
colored preacher once said in his pulpit: "women is 
a queer creature, and there is no exception to their 
queerness, because every woman is possessed of seven 
devils". His female hearers were very indignant at 
him for such a remark and called him to account for it. 
He placed a Bible in the hands of each one, and asked 
them to read aloud the account of Mary Magdalene. 
This done, he asked some questions : "What did Je- 
sus do for Mary Magdalene?" "He cast seven devils 
out of her." "Did he ever cast seven devils out of 
the other women of the world?" "No." "Well, then 
they must be in them yet." It is the same style of 
interpretation that applies one saying of Paul to cer- 
tain women of a certain town and time to all women 
of all times and all towns. 

The Bible is a book of principles and not of rules. 
It says as much about women voting as about men 
voting. The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood, 
and equality before God and the law, of man (inclu- 
ding woman) are the principles of the Bible. Paul's 
instructions about women were in accordance and 
harmony with Eastern customs and surroundings and 
are no more binding on the women of other nations 
with other customs and surroundings than the keep- 
ing the face covered, etc. Woman of the East is treat- 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 17 

ed more like a beast, woman of the West and civiliza- 
tion, is treated more like man's equal, as God intend- 
ed when he created man male-and-female. Would 
not some of our beaux and belles and swells make 
great splurges if they were to court and marry and 
live according to Eastern customs? 

Paul's injunction against the women of lascivious 
Corinth would have been uncalled for against com- 
paratively chaste Jerusalem. He blames the women 
of Corinth, not for praying and prophesying , but be- 
cause they did it with their heads uncovered. The 
feet-washing , the saluting with a holy kiss, the /ace- 
veiling and the seclusion and exclusion of the women 
of the East, are not at all appropriate to the West. 

Who would think of advocating slavery to day be- 
cause Paul sent the runaway slave, Onesimus, back 
to his owner and counselled slaves to obey their 
masters? Paul said a great many things upon which 
there is very little stress put to day. He said among 
other things, " Seek not a wife" ; also, that it was 
good for the unmarried and widows to abide as he 
was. And now how many of our woman-haters are 
willing to take their own medicine? How many of 
them like to have Paul quoted at them ? How many 
of them " strain out the gnat and swallow the camel" 
hunch back and all, because ''She's nothing but a wo- 
man." 

Paul also said : "There is neither Jew nor Greek; 
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." = - 
1* 



i8 #EMAi,E FlU)SOFY. 

That was a declaration of independence almost equal 
to the "All men are created free and equal, etc." 

The Bible says : "Do unto others as you would have 
others do unto you". And what man would want 
a woman to deprive him of his ballot? And why do 
to her what he would not have her do to him? 

If Paul exhorts women to be "subject to their own 
husbands," he also exhorts all to the same, "be ye 
subject one to another:" and "Submit one to anoth- 
er." And where is there a discrimination against a 
woman in all these? 

Paul says : " I suffer not a woman to teach :" and 
it is wonderful how closely men carry that out in the 
church work with four or five female for every male 
teacher . The anti- woman man — the Eastern heathen 
would say: "If women teach at all, let it be done 
in the home : if they lead a meeting, let them keep 
their faces veiled: if they pray at all, let their heads 
be covered : and if they must sing let them sing mum . ' ' 

Now the interpretation of the Bible that excludes 
women from the polls excludes them from all church 
and Sunday School and missionary work. Take 
them out of the church work and let them do noth- 
ing but "learn from their husbands at home," and 
"keep silence in the church," and you may as well 
lock your church doors and throw away the keys. 

There are certain truths that need no Bible doctrine 
to make them acceptable. And Paul and the Bible 
are not against them. Here is one of them : A wo- 
man has the same right and interest to live here 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 19 

and live happily too, that a man has. She is as 
much entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness" as man is. She is as much interested in 
the administration of justice and the existence of 
wholesome laws, as man is. Her interests are just 
as sacred to her and as easily affected as his, and she 
is no less a citizen than he is, and the Bible and 
Paul have too much sense tobeagianst them. 

Dr. Gregg says: "I wish to say that not only do I 
stand upon the platform of the woman suffrage associ- 
ation, but Paul stands upon this platform with me. 
The plain English of it is this : the man who says 
Paul is an anti-woman suffragist lies and it gives me 
very great pleasure that he does." 

Moses was a lawgiver, his brother Aaron a priest, 
and their sister Miriam, a prophetess — an office no 
less honorable and distinctive and important than 
either of the other two. Deborah was not a Prophet- 
ess only, but a Judge also; "and the children of Israel 
came up to her for judgment." An opponent says: 
But she called a man to go up to do the fighting. 
Yes but he was so much of a coward that he would 
not go unless she went along (Jud. 4: 8). So the 
Lord delivered Sisera into the hand of a woman and 
she got the honor of it too. She was Prophetess, 
Judge and warrior. 

And what shall I say more for the women 
of the Bible? For time would fail me to tell of 
the Prophetess, Huldah, expounding the law that 
priestly lore failed to fathom ; of the holy Han- 



20 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

nah, whose aspirations were understood by neithei 
husband nor priest; of faithful and chaste Ruth, pa- 
triotic Esther, and Vashti, who preferred self-respect 
to a kingdom ; of wise Abigail appeasing the wrath of 
David against her churlish husband; and the women 
who f ollwed Jesus ; and the women who labored with 
Paul in the gospel whom he exhorted the men to 
help; Priscilla and Aquilla, Paul's helpers in Christ 
Jesus; and the many others mentioned in the gospel. 

And although a man, Simeon, was the first to talk 
about the new born Saviour, yet a woman, Anna, was 
the first to preach Him to others. And yet men will 
insist that they be nothing but mere ornaments in 
the church. There certainly can be some importance 
attached to a woman being the first preacher of the 
Saviour to others. 

In Gen. 1 : 27,28 we read: "So God created man in 
His own image, in the image of God created he him ; 
male and female created he them. And God blessed 
them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multi- 
ply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." He 
made them equal and set them both at the same kind 
of work, dominating and subduing the earth, and 
not each other. 

Such a thing as a woman's rights or individual con- 
science was not known to the Jews. The general be- 
lief was she had no soul. It is a sad comment on 
their civilization that when the Ten commandments 
were given, a wife was classed with property that 
might be coveted just like a house or a domestic an- 



*J 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 21 

imal. The tenth commandment, however, was a good 
thing for woman in that crude age, since it was a law 
for Home Protection. * 'Because of the hardness of 
men's hearts," (Matt. 19:8), explains many things 
that are recorded in the Old Testament. The oppress- 
ion of woman began with polygamy, the first instance 
of which appears in conjunction with murder, aveng- 
ing of blood and sinful poetry (Gen. 4th) . Even now 
authority for the subjection of women is sought in 
what transpired after sin entered the world. Christ 
says : "From the beginning it was not so," and places 
the authority for the relation of the sexes in the origi- 
nal state of things in Eden. 

There is nothing in the Scriptures to show directly 
or indirectly that women should vote either in church 
or State. It can be inferred that they did vote in 
the election of Matthias to take the place of Judas. 
Acts 1 :14 : "They all continued with one accord in 
prayer and supplication, with the women, and Ma- 
ry the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." 

Then Peter tells them their duty is to elect one to 
take the place of Judas, and in verse 26 the record is : 
"And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell up- 
on Matthias." 

But then, the Bible has been interpreted both for 
and against nearly all the great evils that have ev- 
er existed. It has done service for both sides of the 
Lottery, Social amusements, Drunkenness, Slavery, 
and Polygamy. The Bible is neither in favor of, 
nor opposed to woman suifrage, and therefore the 



J 



22 FEMALE FltOSOFY. 

question must be decided outside of it. 

It is simply ridiculous, to say the least, to see 
some people, who are opposed to woman suffrage, 
going through the Bible picking up a dead bone 
here and one there and trying to make .a compos- 
ite creature that would uphold them in their views, 
and all the time whistling "Sac-ri-le-gious, sac-ri-le- 
gious, sac-ri-le-gious" to the tune of 'Old Hundred', 
fearing all the time that some ghost might arise 
and scare them so that the hairs of their head would 
stand up like the quills of a porcupine, for their act 
of sacrilege in distorting the Scriptures. 

"Let the women learn from their husbands at 
home" would be a peculiar doctrine to day, and to 
carry it out would present a strange picture. Edu- 
cated, intelligent women learning from their hus- 
bands at home, eh? "Ten times as many girl grad- 
uates as boy graduates from our high schools" and 
how much would the average woman "learn from her 
husband at home?" A strange picture indeed. 

Many husbands do not have sense enough to stay at 
home any length of time, much less instruct a wife 
there. Most men have time for nothing but saloons, 
Secret societies and Lodges. And they have solemn- 
ly sworn not to tell what they know about them, 
even to their wives. 

Dr. Lyman Abbott would explode a great shell in 
the camp of the woman suffragists by quoting Paul's 
injunction, "Wives, submit yourselves to your own 
husbands." Here is Mrs. Mary Parry's relpy to it: 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 23 

"Dr. Lyman Abbott, in my humble opinion, mistakes 
wifely submission to the laws of God and nature for 
obedience to a husband's authority. He says a wom- 
an should 'look up to and reverence her husband.' 
Why not look up to and reverence God, and say of our 
husband, in the language of the Psalmist: 'A man 
mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We 
took counsel together and walked to the house of 
God in company?' Why will our brethren twist and 
distort the Apostolic teaching into a command of 
'Wives, obey your husbands,' when there is no such 
command? We recommend all such brethren to spend 
more time and give more thought to an elaborate and 
exhaustive explanation of 'Husbands, love your 
wives', especially when we remember, and all fath- 
ers know, that 'submission' means going down, as 
Mrs. Lathrop says, 'into the very jaws of death, to 
give birth to the children which are God's own pledg- 
es of faithful and honourable marriage." 
History Repeated. 
Samuel J. May in his "Recollections of the Anti- 
Slavery Conflict' ' says : "Accordingly the most violent 
conflicts we had, and the most outrageous mobs we 
encountered, were led on or instigated by persons pro- 
fessing to be religious. Of the 30,000 ministers of 
all denominations in the United States, I believe not 
one in a hundred ever raised his voice against the en- 
slavement of millions of our countrymen, nor lifted 
his finger to protect one who had escaped from bond- 
age It must be left for the future historian of our 



24 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

Republic in the nineteenth century to tell to posteri- 
ty how fearfully the American Church, and ninety 
nine hundredths of the ministers were subjugated to 
the will and behest of our slave- holding oligarchy. 

It cannot be denied that the most formidable oppo 
sition we had to contend against was that which was 
made by the ministers and churches and ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities. When the future history of the anti- 
slavery conflict shall be fully written, and the sayings 
and doings of preachers, theological professors, edi- 
tors of religious periodicals, and presbyteries, associ- 
ations, conferences, and general assemblies, shall be 
spread before the people in the light of our enlarged 
liberty, no one will fail to see that practically the 
worst enemies of truth, righteousness and humanity 
were those who professed to be friends and followers 
of Christ. Had they been generally faithful and 
fearless in behalf of the oppressed, *no other oppo- 
nents would have dared to oppose the just demand 
for their immediate emancipation.' ' 

In the present struggle for the emancipation of the 
drunkard and the women from their respective bond- 
ages the forces for and against are similar to those in 
the struggle for Negro emancipation. And what 
May says of the past may be truly said of the present : 
it will be left to the future historian of our Republic 
in the twentieth century to tell to posterity how 
fearfully the American church, and many of its 
ministers were subjugated to the will and behest of 
Qur Rum-ruling and Slum-making oligarchy. 






FEMALE FILOSOKY. 25 

DISFRANCHISES 



*• I J he political peers of women are peculiar. - 

""^ In Kansas the disfranchises consist of con 
victs, criminals, idiots, insane men and sane women. 
In Minnesota and Nebraska the criminate are dis- 
franchised. In Iowa convicts are not in the list. 

In Wisconsin bribers, boodlers and duellists are. 
In Michigan duellists and women only are disfran- 
chised. In Illinois, women and convicts; women, 
boodlers and bribers in Indiana ; in Missouri, insane, 
paupers, women and criminals are all disfranchised. 

Mrs. Henrietta Briggs-Wall, of Hutchinson, Kan- 
sas, has composed a group of five of these, the 

Idiot, the Criminal, the Indian, the insane man and 
the sane woman (Miss Frances E. Willard), and the 
group is entitled, "American Woman and Her Po- 
litical Peers." 

What sane man is willing to allow his sane wife, 
sane mother, sane daughter, and sane sister to be 
put on an equality with the array of brains consti- 
tuting the above named disfranchised class? 

How many men will admit that their wives mani- 
fested less brains in accepting their proposal than 
they manifested in making it? And yet frequently 
it is only too true. Who doubts his wife's judgment 
when she says he is a good man? And that is right. 
No man should get socially mixed up with a woman 
whose judgment he cannot trust. Yet they are com- 
monly classed with the fool. Either his judgment 



26 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

or hers is bad, or biased in many cases. 

A woman is treated by men as inferior to the sav- 
age Iudian. For if the Indian owns a dog and pays 
taxes on him he can vote. A woman may own the 
world and the fulness thereof and it would not help 
her to the ballot in many states. Probably they are 
treated thus to keep them from getting the whole 
world. But if a woman had a whole world of her 
own, she would have to get a man to control it for 
her. Yes, and then get another woman to control 
the man. So the expense of running it would Boon 
eat up all the profits. How wise men are to see that 
it is best to discourage the women in getting property. 
The criminal who has rebelled against law and 
everything that is good in human society, of course 
should not be allowed to help make laws. But what 
have the women done? Why brand them with the 
same mark? Where is the commonality between a 
sane woman and an insane man ? Yet our legal stat- 
utes put them on an equality in suffrage. The in- 
sane man might abuse the right of suffrage, but who 
dares to say that a woman would do so more than a 
man? 

The center of the group is occupied by the sweet 
face of that grand and noble woman, first and fore- 
most as an all-round good woman in the world — 
Frances E. Willard. Yet many of the men, and our 
statutes, put her on a political level with fools, crim- 
inals, savages, lunatics and paupers of this country, 
and far below American dudes and fops, and foreign 



FEMALE FILOSOKY. 27 

snobs, ex-criminals, ex-convicts, paupers, dunces and 
donkeys, all because "She's nothing but a woman ;' ' 
which is the only invincible argument against woman 
suffrage. Crusty prejudice, conservative faintness 
and the inertia of custom, and all other reasons are 
nothing compared with it. And altogether we have 
never heard a reason against woman suffrage that was 
worth considering, or was worthy the understanding 
of a small boy, or that could stand up without a 
whalebone between its ribs. There is some satisfac- 
tion in striking at an obstacle that is capable of being 
knocked down, but the opposition to woman suffrage 
is like a bag of feathers suspended in the air. You 
may pound it all day, and at night it is still a bag of 
feathers, neither ruffled nor moved. 



RIGHTS. 

* I * he "Outlook" said in regard to the New York 
Constitutional Convention omitting the word 
.male from its constitution: "The question is one of 
political expediency, not of political justice." Just 
as if our government were founded on "political ex- 
pediency." Our idea has always been that "eternal 
justice" was the foundation principle of our govern- 
ment. It was not the amount of tax on tea and pa- 
per, but the principle of taxation without represent- 
ation that hurt us. 



28 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

"Political expediency" cut no figure in it. The 
God-implanted instinct of justice and right prompted 
our sturdy forefathers to resent the insult to their 
independence from the British government. The 
expediency of their] revolutionary measures was not 
considered at all. It was not considered germane 
to the question. The matter simply was, "Taxation 
without representation is contrary to every senti- 
ment of justice, is therefore tyranny and will not be 
tolerated by an enlightened people." That principle 
has not changed. Taxation without representation 
is still tyranny, whether imposed on subjects across 
the waters or at home. The instinct is still alive in 
the American heart. 

Why then is it that our government practices the 
very same tyranny against which the founders of the 
government rebelled? Simply because our lawmakers 
discuss the subject from the standpoint of expediency 
and not from that of right. All intelligent men con- 
cede that on a basis of right the ballot should be in 
the hands of women, but expediency,— speculation 
as to what would be the probable results of women's 
participation in politics — is permitted to thrust aside 
the underlying principle of right, and the subject is 
discussed as a political measure merely, and as one 
devoid of moral quality. 

Where a question of justice is involved in any mat- 
ter, expediency ought to have no place in its settle- 
ment. Evil can not permanently result from a course 
of conduct determined by a strict adherence to right. 



FEMALE F1XOSOEY. 29 

Where are our boasted liberty and freedom? 
Where is the "Land of the free and the home of the 
brave?" (Free men and brave women, we suspect.) 
It could not mean the land of free men and the 
homes of brave women, because the law (generally,) 
does not allow a woman any part of a home that she 
and her husband earn in partnership until he dies, 
and then only the interest of one-third of it. No 
matter if she earns the whole farm after they are 
married, and he only boards with her, (many men 
do that,) she cannot will one cent of it to her chil- 
dren at her death. A widow gets the interest of one- 
third of her own and her husband's property after 
his death. She really owned one-half of it before 
his death, but now only the interest of one, third of 
it. (In many cases she could suffer such a loss in 
order to get rid of him.) If she dies, he gets the 
whole of it to do with it as he pleases. If the prop- 
ety was hers before marriage, and they have a living 
child, he gets the use of it all as long as he lives. — 
He may even drive her children off, bring home anoth- 
er wife and raise up other children on the dead 
mother's property. "O consistency, thou art a jew- 
el." But such an one as does not shine well in the 
light. In some states a married woman cannot own 
anything, no matter whether she earns it or inherits 
it. Everything belongs to the husband. In Ken- 
tucky, a few years ago, lived a man who spent all he 
earned in the saloons. In fact he got so low down 
that he hung round doing odd jobs for his' drinks. 



30 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

. He seldom went home. His wife earned enough 
money, by hard washing, ($32) and bought a cow. 
When he heard of it, he went home, drove the cow 
away and sold her for $7,00 and a shot gun, and re- 
turned to the saloon to spend the money. She had 
no redress at law. She was nothing but a woman, 
and the laws there did not allow her to own anything. 
Abraham Lincoln said: "Freedom and slavery 
cannot both survive." If it is not slavery, what is 
the condition of the 15,000,000 women in this coun- 
try? Is it right that those who were once slaves and 
who are, in many respects, inferior to these women, 
be liberated and the women still left in subjection? 

The ignorant, black man's privileges and oppor- 
tunities and powers are far superior to those of our 
intelligent white women. And yet there are many 
white women spending their lives to day in teaching 
the black man how to vote, but yet they cannot vote 
themselves because they are nothing but women. 

Really the subjection of women is the fruit of us- 
age, custom and consequent prejudice. And in the 
nature of things a man has no more natural right to 
say that a woman shall not vote than a woman has 
to say that a man shall not vote. 

Give us an educational qualification for the ballot, 
and that will sift out the undesirable, sedimentary 
vote of both sexes. This will enable us to exchange 
the undesirable for the desirable, making a test that 
is impartial, in which sex will count for no more 
than the color of the hair. 



FEMALE EILOSOEY. 31 

., Is the principle of taxation without representation 
right? Should women be taxed to help support a 
government in which they have no representation? 
Should women be amenable to laws in whose enact- 
ment they have no voice? 

These are the points at issue ; if they can be an- 
swered affirmatively, then the question of woman 
suffrage may be decided from the standpoint of ex- 
pediency or policy, and then our government ought 
to at once apologize to Great Britain for its rebellion 
against her authority. 

The Baptists in New England early set women free 
ecclesiastically, recognizing the truth that "in 
Christ there is neither male nor female." 

Thomas Jefferson stated that his outline for a 
Democratic form of government for the United States 
was a result of his observations of the Democratic 
form of government of the little Baptist church near 
his home where he often attended. 

Dr. Bushnell and many others would have us be- 
lieve that "suffrage is the right given, never a right 
to be demanded because it inheres beforehand in the 
person, and neither men nor women have any title to 
it save what is grounded in consideration of benefit." 

By whom is it given? And where did the ones w T ho 
confer the right get it? The Declaration "of Inde- 
pendence and the Constitution do not confer the 
right to vote on any one. The framers of these doc- 
uments had the right to vote before the documents 
existed. Or else how could they vote to make them? 



32 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

And others say: "If suffrage is a natural right, by 
what special law of nature does it become operative 
sooner or later?" By the same law that makes the 
right of a boy or girl to get married operative sooner 
or later according to the laws Of the different States. 

The right to trade, contract, marry and vote all 
inhere in the infant, but can only be exercised later 
in life. No one is born a voter. Neither is any one 
born a man. All are born babes. All babes are 
born with the right to become men and women with- 
out hindrance. So are they born with the right to 
become voters. And society only regulates, it does 
not confer these rights. Tha natural rights to "life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness" insure to us 
all that will protect those rights. 

James Freeman Clark says: "There are many 
rights given by society, of which it would neverthe- 
less be manifestly unjust to deprive either sex. If 
women were forbidden to use the sidewalk, and if 
they complained of the deprivation, it would be no 
answer to tell them that it was not a natural right, 
but one given by society, and which society might 

therefore control as it saw fit." And it would be 
about as reasonable to tell them "the majority of the 
women don't want to use the streets," or "bad wom- 
en would use the streets," or "women would be out 
of their 'sphere,'" or "the Bible is opposed to women 
using the streets," etc. But such are the answers of 
men to the women complaining of being deprived of 
what men call a conferred right. 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 33 

If "All self-governments derive their powers from 
those to be governed," certainly those who are to 
obey the laws, and those who are to be punished for 
breaking them, ought to have a voice in making 
them, especially when that voice would not be used 
for a bad purpose, but to good ends. 

Angelina Grimp's motto was: "What is morally 
right for a man to do, is morally right for a woman 
to do." And she was not very far wrong. 

And William Loyd Garrison says: "Women claim 
no other title to it (the suffrage) than men assert for 
themselves ; and that claim is valid in one case as 
well as in the other. It is sure to be accorded in the 
end, and the sooner the better. No matter how ma- 
ny stupid or stubborn men may resist, or how many 
weak minded women may say nay, it will neverthe- 
less be triumphant, adding new luster to the nine- 
teenth century." 

George William Curtis championed equal rights 
in the New York Constitutional Convention of 1857. 
Oneportion of his speech was directed against the 
phrase "Provided that idiots, lunatics, persons un- 
der guardianship, felons, women, and persons con- 
victed of bribery etc.," shall not be entitled to vote," 
and it has been considered a gem of oratory.: "I 
wish to know, sir, and I ask in the name of the po- 
litical justice and consistency of this State, why it 
is that half of the adult population, as vitally inter- 
ested in good government as the other half, who own 
property, manage estates, and pay taxes, who dis- 
charge all the duties of good citizens and are perfect- 
ly intelligent and capable, are absolutely deprived of 
political power and classed with lunatics and felons. 
2 



34 FEMALE EILOSOKY. 

The boy will become a man and a voter ; the luna- 
tic may emerge from the cloud and resume his rights ; 
the idiot, plastic under the tender hand of modern 
science, may be moulded into the full citizen; the 
criminal, whose hand still drips with the blood of 
hia country and of liberty, may be pardoned and 
restored; but no age, no wisdom, no peculiar fitness, 
no public service, no effort, no desire, can remove 
from woman this enormous and extraordinary disa- 
bility. Upon what reasonable grounds does it rest? 
Upon none whatever. It is contrary to natural 
justice, to the acknowledged and traditional princi- 
ples of the American government, and to the most 
enlightened political philosophy." 

On Feb. 6th and 7th, 1866, Charles Sumner made 

a great speech in Congress in favor of equal rights 

for all, and maintained that Congress had full power, 

in guaranteeing a Republican form of government, 

to enfranchise the colored race throughout the nation 

without an amendment to the Constitution. He 
said: "We must declare that a State which, in the 
foundation of its government, sets aside "the con- 
sent-of the governed," which imposes taxation with- 
out representation, which discards the principle 
of equal rights, and lodges power exclusively with 
an oligarchy, aristocracy, caste or monopoly, can 
not be recognized a "Republican form of govern- 
ment" according to the requiremets of American in- 
stitutions. Even if it may satisfy some definition 
handed down from antiquity or invented in monarch- 
ial Europe, it can not satisfy the solemn injunction 

of our constitution To establish the equal 

rights for all, no further amendment is needed. 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 35 

„ The actual text is exuberant; instead of adding 
new words, it will be enough if you give those that 
exist the natural force belonging to them. Instead 
of neglecting, use them. 

An illustrious magistrate once retorted upon an 
an advocate who, dissatisfied with a ruling of the 
court, threatened to burn his books, ''Better read 
them," and so would I say now to all who think the 
Constitution needs amendment. Better read it. 

Yes, sir, read it in the principles proclaimed by 
the Fathers before the Kevolution ; read it in the dec- 
laration of the Fathers when they took their place as 
a Republic; read it in the avowed opinions of the 
Fathers ; read it in the noble acts of the Fathers ; 
and in all this beaming, diffusive light, you w r ill dis- 
cern the true meaning. The victory that overthrew 
slavery carried away all those glosses and construc- 
tions by which this wrong was originally fastened 
upon us. For generations, the National Constitution 
has been interpreted for slavery. From this time 
forward, it must be interpreted in harmony with the 
Declaration of Independence, so that human rights 
shall always prevail." 

Benjamin Franklin said: "Liberty, or freedom 
consists in having an actual share in the appoint- 
ment of those who frame the laws. . . . They wiio 
have no voice nor vote in the electing of representa- 
tives, do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely en- 
slaved." 

Surely then, a government is despotic in propor- 
tion to the rights with-held from the people. And 
so far as womanhood is concerned, America is almost 
an absolute despotism. 



36 FEMALE F1X0S0FY. 

CITIZENS 



w, 



ho are citizens? Men only, when it comes to 
making laws and drawing salaries, but men-and-wo- 
men when the laws are to be obeyed and the salaries 
paid. If a woman had the wealth of a Dives and 
the wisdom of a Solomon, and a man had the poverty 
of Lazarus and the ignorance of a dunce, he could 
make the laws and she would be compelled to obey 
them and pay the salary. Division of labor. See? 
The fifteenth amendment to our Constitution says : 

"The right of citizens to vote shall not be 

denied or abridged .... on account of race, color or 
previous 3 ondition of servitude." Again: "No State 
shall make, or enforce any law which shall abridge 
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the Uni- 
ted States." Art. XIV., Seel: "All persons born 
or naturalized in the United States and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the State where 
they reside." 

When women intend to travel in foreign countries 
they take out citizens' passports for protection. 

And the Supreme Court of the United States has 
time and again decided that women are citizens. — 

Webster defines the word "citizen" to be "a per- 
son, native or naturalized, who has the privilege of 
voting for public officers, and who is qualified to fill 
offices in the gift of the people." The right to vote 
then_, inheres in citizenship ; 



FEMALE KILOSOFY. 37 

WHO ARE "THE PEOPLE?" 



TTT . 

I he preamble to our Constitution says: "We, 

the people of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 
promote the general welfare and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
and establish this Constitution for the United 

States of America." 

Now who are "the people?" Is a woman a peo- 
ple? If not, why did not the men people say: "we 
the men people of the United State s, in order to 
form a more despotic union, establish injustice, in- 
sure masculine rale and feminine subjection, 

promote our general welfare and secure the blessings 
of liberty and freedom to ourselves and our male 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution 
for the United States ? ' ' 

For a little experiment we pitsk up the Constitu- 
tion of the State of Ohio. The preamble says : "We 
the people of the State of Ohio, (1) grateful to Al- 
mighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings 
and promote our common welfare, do establish this 
Constitution." 

Now the women of Ohio ought to be very grateful 
for their "freedom" to do nothing but what men 
allow them; to secure such blessings as men think 
they need ; to promote the common welfare of men 
and help to establish the Constitution of their State. 



38 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

Sec. 1: of the "Bill of Rights" says: "Alkmen 
are, by nature, free (1) and independent, and have 
certain inalienable rights, among which are those of 
enjoying and defending (2) life and liberty, acqui- 
ring, possessing, and protecting property, (%) and 
seeking and obtaining happiness and safety." 

Now if the word "men" doss not include women 
it certainly should. ■ If it does, it is very inconsist- 
ent. The women have the right to acquire and pos- 
sess property, but what power have they to protect it? 
Men tax their property as much as they please and 
use the money as it suits them. Men can pass such 
laws as will consume the property and the women 
can neither protect it nor hinder them. They may 
build houses, but men can set down saloons beside 
them and depreciate the property, destroy their hap- 
piness and endanger their lives, and yet they live 
in America. 

Sec. 2, says: "All political power is inherent in 
the people." (1) G-overnment is instituted for their 
equal protection and benefit, and they have the right 
to alter, reform, or abolish the same etc." 

Does the word "people" mean men, or does it mean 
men-and-women when political power is spoken of? 
What is the antecedent of their and they? Is it men, 
or is it men-and-women? If "Government is insti- 
tuted for equal protection and benefit" of men and 
women, then the next clanse is not true, for men 
only can "alter, reform and abolish the same when- 
ever they deem it necessary." 



FEMALE FILOSOKY. 39 

Sec. 3: "The people have the right to assemble 
together in a peaceable manner etc." certainly means 
both men and women. But "people" in the next 
sec. (4) means men only; "the people have a right to 
bear arms." Sec. 5: "The right to trial by jury;" 
Sec. 6 : "No slavery in this state ;" Sec. 7 : "All men 
have a natural and indefeasible right to worship ; ' ' 
Sec. 8: "Writ of Habeas Corpus;" and Sec. 9: "All 
persons shall be bailable," all includes women as well 
as men. 

We might go through the whole Bill of Bights and 
Wrongs in this way and show how confused are the 
ideas of the Constitution of the great State of Ohio ; 
but this is sufficient. Now Ohioans are not all the 
sinners that dwell at Jerusalem and have sinned 
in this way. You may take up almost any other 
State Constitution and you will find it wonderfullv 
like unto that of Ohio. And the same indefinite ness 
and inconsistencies are found in the United States 
Constitution. Is it not time we begin to say what 
we mean and mean what we say ? 

Under our present circumstances and according to 
our political statutes we should say we have a "gov- 
ernment of the men people, for the men people, by 
the men people." Women people do not count, 
only in making up a larger number, so as to have 
as many representatives as possible, and thus put 
more men people in the "by people" or official class, 
to draw salaries— all because "She's nothing but 
a woman." 



40 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

FREEDOM AND EQUALITY. 



j^amantha Allen says: "The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence says : 'All men are born free and equal.' 

Now half of that means men, and the other half 
means mew and women. Now to understand them 
words perfect you have to divide the sex. 'Men are 
born,' that means men and women both, — men and 
women are both born, nobody will dispute that. 

Then comes the next clause, 'Free and Equal.' 
Now that means men only, — anybody with one eye 
can see that.." 

In the National Convention that nominated Lin- 
coln for President, a set of resolutions were intro- 
duced, not so much opposed to slavery as to slavery 
extension. Joshua Giddings thought they were not 
strong enough and he introduced an amendment reas- 
serting the 'self evident truths' of the Declaration of 
Independence, that "All men are created free and 
equal" He said it was the first platform of the par- 
ty and to leave it out would be a cowardly dodging 
of first principles. The convention shied at it as 
taking ground against slavery perse, when opposition 
to its extension was all that was intended. It would 
lose votes. Down it went. The old man found that 
the convention was not in harmony with his anti- 
slavery views and fight, and so he made his way out 
at the door. 

What made that gathering possible? What was 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 41 

its aim? What were its links of sympathy? Why 
call his proposition a mere whim? It was the cru- 
cial test of the organization, and why should he not 
go out when it failed ? 

There was nothing there for him. The great 
truth for which he was ready to die was opposed and 
abandoned, and the Reform party stood cringing be- 
fore the Nation and dared not stand on the prnciples 
upon which the Republic was founded. Instead of 
it being a ''childish act" to leave the room, it was 
a duty to self-respect and the honor of a righteous 
cause, and the only thing that brought the convention 
to its senses. Men who knew G-iddings' unselfish, con- 
secrated work for freedom saw him leave in sadness, 
and in the midst of its rush and sweep and enthusi- 
asm, that great convention stopped and questioned if 
it paid to cringe before the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. And at the right moment George William 
Curtis with that majestic thrill of his kingly presen ce 
and classic words addressed the convention: "I have 
to ask this convention whether they are prepared to 
go upon record and before the country as voting 
down the words of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence?" Cries of 'no, no', came from all over the 
house. "I rise," he said in closing, "simply to ask 
gentlemen to think well, before upon the free prairies 
of the west, in the summer of 1860, they dare to 
wince and quail before the assertions of the men in 
Philadelphia in 1776, before they dare to shrink 
from repeating the words these great men enuncia- 



42 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

ed." And the amendment was adopted with scarcely 
a dissenting voice. 

The reformers of to day are thundering against 
the walls of prejudice and ignorance and deep root- 
ed custom, and wrong, imbedded in the state and na- 
tion. They are fighting avarice and compromise, 
as did the heroes of slavery times. The gathering 
time will surely come, — the harvest of enlighten- 
ed conscience, and loyalty to principle and keen- 
edged justice. Oh, for a George William Curtis to 
open the eyes of our political conventions, so they 
would no longer fear to form and stand by a platform 
that reaffirms the foundation princples of our Gov- 
ernment. But there is also great need of men of 
principle and backbone, who will get up and out of 
a convention, and out of a party too, that refuses to 
stand by the Declaration of Independence. 



FEMALE EILOSOEY. 43 

MEN AND WOMEN. 



I /-w-od made man and man made woman what she is 
^^ a— slave. This country is governed by the con- 
sent of the men only. A woman has no more will 
or consent than a dead man. But a woman is a cit- 
izen and is equally affected with man by bad or good 
government. And because obligations to society 
and subjection to government are without sex, so 
should suffrage be too. 

Woman was made as much in the likeness of God 
as man was, and if our churches are a good criterion 
of judgment, perhaps more so. Both were made 
social, and not solitary beings. And in things in 
in which both are equally concerned it is not good 
for either to be alone. Man was not complete until 
he received a help-meet. Then came society, and 
God made their relations binding, not by their con- 
sent, but by his decree. 

Civilized society is the cultivation of all inter- 
dependent relations of all the persons concerned, 
and the upward rising towards the Creator. Barba- 
rous society is the ignoring of all, or some of these 
relations, or the dominion of the lower propensities 
in whole or in part. It may consist in the ill treat- 
ment of other persons, peoples or nations. And 
certainly it is barbarous to deprive any one of a God- 
given right, when tbe exercise of that right would 
not work harm, but good to society. 

When Rome was ruined, the degradatfon of worn- 



44 FEMALE FIXOSOFY. 

anhood and the debasement of lofty sentiment was 
so great, that appeals to the good and noble would 
not reach the degraded domineers. And how can 
any nation flourish when the God-given rights of 
the people are trampled on, and all that is good and 
noble is ignored? 

Will any man dare to say a woman would not have 
good judgment in things pertaining to her "life, lib- 
erty and happiness," and rob her of her children, 
her rights and her reason? 

If man was only part of a man (the male part) 
until the female was created, so a government of the 
male part of man is only half a government. The 
best government in this world is that of the home 
where father and mother have equal power, as in the 
modern Christian home. No other place is so free 
from temptations, and serves the best interests of all 
its inmates. A government on the same basis would 
be more like a typical home and serve the best inter- 
ests of all, and shut out the pests of civilization. 

Honesty would compel us to admit that the subju- 
gation of woman is a trace of that barbarism that 
made women slaves, beasts'of burdens, pets and play- 
things. And the whole logic of the thing lies in a 
nutshell. Either women should vote, or men should 
not vote. Human ingenuity cannot suggest a single 
distinction between the sexes, so far as the right to 
vote is concerned. If measured intellectually, the 
women of our country are superior to the men. 

Are women not just as capable as men of judging 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 45 

of the respective merits of men and measures ; of 
Neal and McKinley; of Cleveland and Harrison; of 
free trade and protection, free whiskey and "cordial 
sympathy;" of civil service reform and the spoils 
system ; of woman suffrage and fraudulent elections? 
And shall we trust the men who are as ignorant as 
oxen to decide these, and be afraid of Mary Somer- 
ville and others who measure the stars? 

Men and women have the same interests in this 
world ; both own property and pay taxes ; both have 
children to be educated and protected, and lives and 
limbs to be made secure. They follow many of the 
same businesses and professions ; they do much of 
the same labor, and have each shown ability as 
queens and kings, as rulers and administrators, as 
business clerks and agents. And why should there 
be such a distinction made when it comes to dropping 
a bit of paper into the ballot box? 

A few years ago a married woman of Massachu- 
setts, who earned wages, agreed with her husband, 
who alse was a wage-earner, to form a common fund 
and he should take care of that fund. Afterwards, 
with his consent, she drew from the fund, and with 
the money she purchased clothing for herslf . A law- 
suit was the result. The court, after solemn argu- 
ment, decided the clothes belonged to the husband. 
She did not own the shoes on her feet. It is still the 
case in most of the states. Lately a Western Judge 
decided a woman's time is her husband's time, and 
damages for loss of time can be recovered by him only. 



46 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

If a woman has her money invested in Railroad, 
Bank or Building and Loan Association stock, etc., 
she votes as often and as well as a man does. If she 
draws it out and puts it into real estate, she has no 
more control over its taxation than her six months 
old infant. Men may vote it away as they see fit. 

The opposers to woman suffrage protest that vir- 
tue is the most essential qualification of the citizen 
voter, and yet maintain that women, who possess 
this qualification in v the highest degree should be 
excluded from the polls ; they admit to the ballot- 
box the worst element of society, and yet maintain 
the best element should be excluded from it ; they 
declare that taxation of man without representation 
is tyranny, but that taxation of woman without rep- 
resentation is a blessing; they trust the Negro, the 
Chinaman, the Irishman, the German, the Hottentot 
and the South Sea Islander, if these choose to come 
to our shores. "Many of them," says Dr. Hulbert, 
"come to us having neither money enough to pay 
their passage, nor learning enough to write their 
names, nor virtue enough to prize their liberties, 
nor manhood enough to use their opportunities. 
These are the people who desecrate our Sabbaths, 
who corrupt our elections, who misrule our cities, 
who foment our strikes, who appeal to bludgeons, 
the torch, dynamite, social and political revolution." 
And notwithstanding the truth of the above, still 
here remains that invincible "She's nothing but 
a woman." 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 47 

WOMEN DON'T WANT TO VOTE. 



When Keely was about to establish his institute 
for the cure of inebriates, suppose that people 
had said to him: "I am opposed to it, because drunk- 
ards don't want to de cured." Suppose some one 
objects to foreign missions because "the heathen 
dontwanttobe saved." The Negro received the 
ballot because it was right and not because he asked 
for it, or wanted it. 

If Feelix steals a horse, and the owner of the horse 
neither prosecutes him nor demands the horse back, 
it neither gives him the ownership nor makes the 
theft right. Not demanding our rights is no reason 
for others with-holding them from us. The Negroes 
did not always dare to make known their desires and 
requests to theft* masters, nor to any one else. White 
slaves often keep their mouths closed for the same 
reason. What good would it do for women to open 
their mouths about their rights in many instances ? 
Simply to be hooted at for wanting to meddle with 
men's business, and be told their place is at home, 
caring for the children, and not at the polls voting or 
electioneering. 

During the Crusades in Ohio, many cowardly men 
wanted to know why the wives and daughters of the 
drunkards were not among the Crusaders. If they 
were not satisfied, why not show their dissatisfaction 
by being among those fanatical women parading the 
streets and praying in the saloons? 



48 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

In 1890 the people of South Dakota votedon two 
important amendments to their State Constitution. 
The first was to enfranchise the women; the second 
was to enfranchise the Sioux Indians. Woman suf- 
frage was overwhelmingly defeated. Sioux suffrage 
was carried by the votes of the American, German, 
Norwegian, Swede, Dane and Hungarian. And these 
Indians neither asked for the ballot nor aspired to 
citizenship. Hundreds of them asked for rations, 
and on being denied, before midwinter were in arms 
against the government that thrust citizenship upon 
them, which rebellion cost the State no small amount 
of money and bloodshed. 

Every year thousands of young men deposit their 
first ballot and no one ever thinks of asking them if 
they want to vote. And why ask a woman? Why 
make "wanting to vote" a condition of voting in one 
case and not in the other? 

Not one woman in a thousand cares to enter the 
profession of Law, Medicine or the Ministry, but we 
insist that these professions be open to those who 
do want to enter, on the same terms as to men. 

Society may impose restrictions and adopt regula- 
tions under which each individual may practice law 
or medicine, or vote, but they should apply to all. 
But for society to say that no Jew shall hold office 
because he is a Jew, that no G-erman shall practice 
medicine because he is a German, no Negro shall 
preach because he is a negro, and no woman shall vote 
because she is a woman, is the basest of tyranny. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 49 

Mother Stewart gives the reason for their absence, 
in her "History of the Crusades." She says they 
were on the street one day in an Ohio town, and a 
drunkard went reeling by, and one of the women 
remarked to him that his wife ought to be with them. 
He replied: "If she w T ere I'd kill her." And here 
is the secret, why so many women suffer secretly and 
silently, and seldom complain of their lots, or de- 
mand their rights. It is the domineering disposition 
of men that has kept women from demanding their 
rights. Give them a chance and see if they don't 
want to vote. Two men were debating the woman 
suffrage question in an Ohio town, before a large 
audience. The one opposed to it said the women 
did not want to vote. His opponent in his next 
speech said he could prove that the women wanted 
to vote, and if there were no objections he would do 
it right there. He was told to proceed. He then 
said : "All the women'in the house who would vote if 
they could, please stand up." All the women in the 
audience immediately stood up, and the opposer's 
wife was among them. 

Many people think the strongest reason for refus- 
ing women the ballot is "they don't want to vote." 
"The Christian Work" says: "What the majority 
do not w T ant the totality should not have." Such 
logic put in force would hinder and prevent all re- 
forms. The Law from Mt. Sinai was too previous, 
for the Jews were worshipping a golden calf at the 
time and did not want a law opposed to such. 



50 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

Christ came too soon, for He was not wanted by 
the majority, and by but few of the totality. It 
was wrong to begin to preach the gospel at Jerusalem 
where Christ was not wanted. Luther must give up 
the Reformation, the Slums must remain as they are, 
the Whiskey traffic, the Sunday newspaper, and ev- 
ery form of sin and iniquity are to be let alone be- 
cause the majority want them. "Don't want it" 
is not a good reason in itself for refusing to grant 
a thing. It is no reason at all. Men do not lock 
stables and fence fields because they know people 
will not steal and cows will not eat corn, but because 
they fear they will. li JEt tu, Brute.'' 1 

Men would not for one moment listen to such an 
argument against themselves. 

.By the census report there are 466,960 males of 
voting age in Chicago, and 236,711, or more than 
one half of them did not vote, and were not register- 
ed. Should not these non- voters be disfranchised? 
Yea verly, and the 230,249 who are registered and do 
vote should be disfranchised also as a punishment to 
them because the others do not vote. Such is the 
logic of those who would with-hold the ballot from 
some women because others do not want to vote. 

But on the other hand, if one man or woman wants 
to exercise the right to vote, what earthly reason is 
there for denying it because other men and women 
do not wish to exercise it? If I desire t© breathe 
the pure air of heaven, shall I be deprived of it be- 
cause others prefer the stale atmosphere of indoors? 



FEMALE KILOSOKY. 51 

Women being citizens, are clearly entitled to the bal- 
lot, and no State has a constitutional right to exclude 
any citizen from voting because of sex. 

According to our laws and customs, men only are 
citizens. And a woman is never a man unless she 
commits crime, disobeys law or owns property. And 
in the last case she is only half a man — the tax-pay- 
ing half. Men make themselves self-appointed rep- 
resentatives to see that she is not deprived of the 
tax-paying privilege, just because "She's nothing 
but a woman." 

Judge Farrar upholds the authority of the National 
government to maintain the republicanism of the 
States in the following strong language: "When 
Congress undertakes to prescribe a republican gov- 
ernment to the States, and of course, to determine 
what is such a government, they will be as likely to 
decide what kind and what portion of the people 
shall participate in the suffrage, and under what 
regulations and restrictions, as they will be to decide 
what part of the government officers shall be chosen 
by popular election(page 152). 

It is the duty of Congress to see that no aristocra- 
cy, oligarchy, or privileged class is allowed to usurp 
the rights of the people, or disfranchise any portion, 
much less one-half, or a majority of their own cit- 
izens." 

In the Constitutional Convention at Albany N. Y., 
a statement was presented from the women suffra- 
gists showing that out of the #2,400,000,000 of as- 






52 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

sessed property in the state outside of New York 
city, the women paid taxes on over $300,000,000. 
The number of women taxed is 144,000. 

Women in the State of Kansas control property 
assessed at $88,000,000, thus giving to the state and 
county nearly $3,000,000 ; and state alone, $350,000. 

Now if our fathers were robbed because they were 
taxed by a body in which they were not represented, 
our women to-day are robbed simply because they 
are taxed by a body in which they are not represent- 
ed. And every State plunders from its women a 
million dollars every few years. 

In the town of Brooklme, Mass., in 1883, one wom- 
an, with her trustees, was taxed $10,599.75, yet if 
she had ventured to come into a Town-meeting and 
offer to speak about any proposed expenditure of 
money, or any other matter of business or interest to 
the community, she would have been laughed at. 
The chairman could do as he pleased about, allowing 
her to speak. But one thing is sure, she had no vote 
and they would vote away her money as it seemed 
good to them. 

Her money really did more for the support of the 
town than the money of any other wealthy person in 
town (not one whit wiser, more generous, or more 
public spirited than she,) whose words in a town- 
meeting would have been listened to with the utmost 
respect; because they are men. She paid more to 
secure good roads, good streetlights, good drains, 
good police, and town officers, than thousands of men. 



FEMALE FItOSOFY. 53 

And yet upon no question of the improvement of 
the town could she vote, though abundantly compe- 
tent to form a correct judgment on all of them. 

The only subject on which she could vote was choos- 
ing a school committee. Even on the subject of 
schools, she has no vote in determining the amount 
proper to be appropriated for educational purposes, 
and no power to vote to make school houses healthy. 
Some five years ago the Nebraska legislature con- 
stituted Thurston county with but two townships, 
a lot of prairie grass and a few patches of Indians. 
The latter did not pay taxes but the most of them vo- 
ted. To start out, the county borrowed $10,000. 
Two townships of farmers and three or four mer- 
chant land owners in Pendar, were the only tax- 
payers. The saloon element got up a scheme for boom- 
ing the town by building a new court house. Among 
the tax-payers was a widow who was left with six 
small children. Like the true American woman of 
pluck, she hired two hands and tried to run the little 
farm. There was a special election to decide on 
bonding the county for $25,000 for a new court house, 
in addition to the $10,000 already against them. 
That widow could not vote although she paid taxes. 
Her hired hands paid no taxes, but both voted. 
About 600 non-tax-paying Indians were allowed to 
vote. There were about 300 tax-payers in all. The 
non-tax-payers about doubled the tax-payers. The 
saloon element easily worked up the non-tax-payers 
to vote to bond the town so as to increase business. 



54 FEMALE ElLOSOFY. 

The next year's crops failed and the widow could 
not pay her hands and the extra high tax they had 
voted on her. The farm was sold and a tax-title deed 
given to the purchaser. Did not Yankee Bill thrash 
English John because he oppressed and required him 
to be taxed without being represented? Was it less 
tyranny in the Nebraska widow's case than when it 
was a Yankee? But she was nothing but a woman. 

IT IS NOT TRUE. 

We have shown the injustice of with-holding 
the ballot from women on the ground that some 
women "don't want to vote. ,, We will now show 
the untruthfulness of it. 

At the first election when the women voted in 
Ohio three women cast ballots for every four men. 
In Colorado the registry showed that the first ballots 
of the women were about equal to those of the men 
at the same election. In Denver the female vote was 
55 per cent, of the whole. 

After 25 years of experience in Massachusetts the 
percentage of the women voting was greater than 
that of the men. 

The Mt, Pleasant, (la.) Free Press says: "Al- 
most 400 signatures were obtained to a petition for 
woman suffrage in our city between Monday noon 
and Tuesday evening. Three out of every four per- 
sons seen signed the petition gladly."- 

Of the first registration in Connecticut, Miss 
Burr says: "The registration of women revealed 
the fact, which many of us had suspected, that there 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 55 

were many more women who believed in suffrage 
who had never let their belief be known, than those 
who did let it be known." 

In New Zealand the first year the women had the 
franchise 109,500 women registered to 193,500 men, 
or about four women for every seven men registered. 

But the women voted at the ratio to men of 4 to 
5.5. Those who did not vote were to be struck off 
the registry. (They can apply for registration 
again.) The percentage of men deregistered was 
27.5 and of women 17.5. This shows that the women 
of New Zealand do want to vote. 

Five hundred Wellesley girls united in a telegram 
of congratulation to the Colorado Woman Suffrage 
Association upon the passing of the equal rights 
amendment. On a canvass of 622 students, 502 of 
them favored suffrage. 

Here is an account of their voting in Kansas after 

seven years experience, and when the novelty had 

worn off : 

1 'The female vote in the last election was larger 
than in the one next preceding, and that was larger 
than the one which preceded it. The women voted 
much more numerously in the last election than they 
ever did before. In Kansas City the women voted 
three and one-third times as numerously as they did 
in 1887, when women were admitted first to the mu- 
nicipal elections, and when it was said they went to 
the polls in such large numbers because of the nov- 
elty of the thing. The women vote of Fort Scott 
last year was three and one half times as large as their 
first vote. The Emporia and Salina women doubled 
their first vote. Many of our daughters did excel- 



56 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

lently ; but the Wichita women excelled them all, for 
they voted at the last election seven times as numer- 
ously as they did at first. 

The woman vote has climbed to a better proportion 
of the male vote. It was 42 per cent, of the male 
vote in '87. In '93 it was 70 per cent. At the last 
election in Topeka, the woman vote was to the men 
vote as 4 to 6 ; in Kansas City it was 4 to 8 ; in Wich- 
ita as twenty-five and one-half to fifty. One year 
in Leavenworth 3,500 women voted and4,000men — 
seven women, you see, voted to every eight men. 
In ten of our cities the women vote has exceeded 
the men vote. ' Three cities in the last election put 
themselves on record with the women voting more 
numerously than the men. Two of these were coun- 
ty seats. In one of them, Fredonia, the women vote 
stood to the men as three to two ; in the other, 
Oberlin, five women voted to four men. And 
these women voters are among our best women. 
The majority of them are women of position. They 
are from the churches, the schools, literary societies, 
iOhautauquas. They are the housekeepers, home 
makers, and mothers, and it is always the eminently 
respectable women who are in the lead. 

We have had no trouble at the polls. The voting 
places are entirely decent. It is no worse when 
men and women go to the polls together to deposit 
ballots than when they go to the postoflice to deposit 
letters." 

Over 640,000 people petitioned the New York con- 
stitutional convention to remove the word "male" 
from the requirements of voters. Over 40,000 W. 
C. T. U, women asked for the same. 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 57 

So it does not look as if women do not want to 
vote. It is wonderful that as many women do want 
to vote since politics are so corrupt and disgusting, 
and to enter them seems to many as out of place, 
because they are not used to such things. And then 
there is such a tremendous pressure brought to bear 
to hold them in bondage ; not only the powers of 
earth — laws, customs and constitutions — but the de- 
crees of Heaven, the scriptures and religious super- 
stitions. • 

Give a woman half a chance and she will soon 
show that she does want to vote, will vote and must 
vote, because "She's Nothing but a Woman." 



"I GUESS I CAN." 




BY MRS. EMMA FLATTER SEABURY. 

he washed the dishes, and made the bed, 
And patiently got on her knees to scrub ; 
In winter she milked the cows in the shed, 
In summer bent o'er the steaming tub; 
She made the garden, and swept and baked ; 
And cooked for boarders, and raked the hay, 
And never complained that her poor head ached, 
Or John was almost always away. 



58 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

When they asked her if she would like to vote, 
She said with a sigh and a look remote, 
"I have done more work than my old man, 
If I have the time, why, I guess I can." 

She rocked the cradle the while she churned, 
She kept the children so clean and neat, 
And most of the living her poor hands earned 
While John talked politics in the street. 
When any were sick, the watch she kept, 
She gathered the little ones Sabbath day, 
And walked two miles to the church alway. 
She mended and sewed while her husband slept, 
She taught the children each day a spell; 
When they asked if she favored the suffrage plan, 
She timidly glanced at her husband — "well, 
If John is willing, I guess I can." 

And so she drudged, and she baked and brewed, 
And toiled from dawn to the midnight drear. 
John drank, and gossiped, and spat and chewed, 
And talked and grumbled of "woman's sphere." 
And her children grew into stalwart men, 
Brave and helpful, and by her side; 
She knew she made them, and once again, 
When they ask'd the question, she said with pride 
"There's a hundred-dollar woman sometimes 
Yoked to a small ten-dollar man. 
I'm sure it isn't one of tne crimes- 
To vote against him. I guess I can." 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 59 

IT IS UNWOMANLY. 



. I UDGE WAXEM said: "It stretches a woman 
all out of shape when she begins to reach for the 
ballot-box." So it seems to him. But it is not 
half as hard on her shape as bending over the wash 
tub to support a drunken husband, made such by a 
bartender to whom he gave a license to make drunk 
and kill. 

Men say it is unwomanly for a woman to go to the 
polls, but it is womanly for her to go to circuses, 
dances and theaters. The same men who say that 
voting would be unwomanly think nothing of accom- 
panying the women to such places. And what has 
not occurred in all of these places to shock the mod- 
esty of men as well as women? Fights, drunkenness, 
profanity, vulgarity, and almost every crime in the 
catalogue. And yet it would be unwomanly for a 
woman to vote. 

At the very mention of voting by women, men's 
minds fill up with the picture of all the women of the 
town, precinct or village, getting in men's clothing, 
filling their pockets with whiskey flasks filled to the 
brim, calling men and women aside into rooms, eel 
lars, alleys, dark nooks and corners, and drinking 
and "setting up" votes. The image contains the 
idea that the women will rush out from their homes, 
offices and especially their "dens," that the whole 
female population will be in bloomers and specta- 
cles, a great army marching from the nursery and 



60 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

kitchen to the polls. That they will vote all day on 
Monday and stay up all night and drink whiskey and 
whoop and holler for their candidate, as his votes 
are reported and sing "We'll not go home till morn- 
ing," and that the "cooler" will be filled up with 
them before morning and the babes will be left at 
home half starved, with the men who have, to "stay 
at home and rock cradles and wash dishes;" that 
this same thing w T ill occur again on Tuesday and on 
Wednesday and every day of the week, and they say 
' 'It will be unwomanly for women to vote.'' We should 
say so, too. But is it not unmanly for men to do 
the same? It is just as bad for a man to make a fool 
or a beast of himself as for a woman. We are more 
accustomed to the one than to the other, and that 
makes all the difference. 

How is it with men? Do they desert their work- 
shops, their ploughs and offices, to pass their time 
at the polls? Is it a credit to a man to be called a 
professional politician? The pursuits of men in the 
world, to which they are directed by the natural 
aptitude of sex, and to which they must devote their 
lives, are as foreign from political f unctions as those 
of women. To take an extreme case : there is noth- 
ing more incompatible with political duties in cook- 
ing and taking care of children than there is in dig- 
ging ditches or making shoes, or in any other neces- 
sary employment ; while in every superior interest of 
society growing out of the family, the stake of women 
is not less than men's, and their knowledge is greater. 
In England, a woman who owns shares in the East- 
India Company may vote. In this country, she may 
vote as a stockholder upon a railroad from one end 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 61 

of the country to another. But if she sells her 
stock and buys a house with the money, she has no 
voice in the laying out of the road before her door, 
which her house is taxed to keep and pay for. Why, 
in the name of good sense, if a responsible human 
being may vote upon specific industrial projects, 
may she not vote upon the industrial regulations of 
the State? There is no more reason that men should 
assume to decide participation in politics to be un- 
womanly than that women should decide for men 
that it is unmanly. It is not our prerogative to keep 
women feminine. Nature is quite as wise as we. 
Whatever their sex incapacitates women from doing, 
they will not do. Whatever duty is consistent with 
their sex and their relation to society, they will 
properly demand to do until they are permitted. 

The ballot confers power on those who are en- 
dowed with it, and power always commands respect. 
To be weak is to be miserable, and the enfranchised 
woman will be more respected than ever before. A 
gentleman is always courteous, and a boor is always 
a boor, and from gentlemen, women of any condition 
have nothing to fear. 

In Colorado, " house- wifery" is on an equality 
with "husbandry." When the wife of ex Governor 
Rout stepped up to the front rank to register as a 
voter under the new equal suffrage law recently, and 
was asked her occupation, she replied, "House-wife." 
And hundreds of women who had felt some embar- 
rassment on this point took courage. 

Not long since there was quite a discussion in the 
Montreal papers as to whether it was right "for a 
woman to enter into business or not." It was claimed 
to be "not a woman's place." The women ought to 



62 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

stay at home. And oh, what a pathetic picture one 
man drew of all the poor men at home darning 
stockings, washing dishes, nursing babies, etc., 
while the females of the town ran the business down 
street. 

One of the foolish objections against equal suf- 
frage is, "A woman can't do anything that a man 
can't do better." Well if they can change places 
with advantage to both, let them do it. 

Women are wage-earners, and ought to have an 
equal opportunity and advantage with men to earn 
an honest living. 

Every girl should not aim at entering public life . 
But every girl should have some means of earning a 
livelihood if circumstances should call her to do so. 
The majority of the women will be crowned queens, 
of that mighty empire, the home ; but all women do 
not marry. If Barcus is not willing Peggotty being 
anxious avails nothing. The old adage "Every 
dog has his day" is not true, for there are more 
dogs than days. So every woman could not get 
married if she wanted to, for many reasons. The 
first one is, there are not enough men to go around. 
The rest are all equally as good. 

A little boy said,' 'When God made Adam he looked 
at him and said, 'Well I think I can do better than 
that,' so he made Eve, and he was so pleased that he 
has been making more Eves than Adams ever since." 

Now, what are these surplus women to do to earn 
a livelihood? Stay at home with their fathers? 
Fathers do not live forever down here. Well, let 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 63 

them go to their brothers. But brothers have a fac- 
ulty for taking care of somebody else's sister. No. 
A great majority of these women have to fight their 
own way through life, and many of them have to do 
it barehanded and alone, with no weapon of educa- 
tion or money to help in the battle, but only the thin 
wand of their own wills to carry them on to victory. 
Let them go into the stores, or learn bookkeeping or 
type-writing. Yes, many of them do, and are paid 
about half as much as the male clerks for doing the 
same amount of work. But I believe that this la- 
mentable state of affairs will soon cease to exist, and 
that women will occupy the place that God origi- 
nally intended them to fill. 

We believe that only a few choice spirits are 
really called to any profession, and some lawyers 
would have more success in mending the holes in 
their client's shoes than in patching up their quar- 
rels. 

We have heard it said time and again that a wo- 
man who enters public life unsexes herself. Oh, if 
we could but recognize the Christian doctrine of 
equality: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there 
is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor 
female." Faith, hope, love, morality, art, litera- 
ture, learning, these have no sex. Whatever is 
right in this world is sexless in the sense that it be- 
longs to everybody alike — to man and to woman. 
Does a woman degrade herself when she enters the 
medical profession? Does she blunt her finer sensi- 
bilities as she studies the touch of Deity in the 
wonderful construction of the human body? Is any- 
thing degrading that lends a helping hand to suffer- 
ing humanity? Right here in our midst are women 
longing and waiting for the help that such women 
could afford, while from across the seas comes a great 



64 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

wail of sick and dying women who are denied the 
help which doctors might afford if they w r ere allowed 
to see them. Who can say how much good might 
be done, and distress relieved, if some women conse- 
crated their lives to this grand work? 

If a woman be truly called to enter any calling or 
profession, there is nothing in God's Word, or His 
Church, or her own nature, in the true interests of 
society, to hinder her from exercising in that calling 
or profession the gifts God has given her. But there 
is much in history, much in her own nature, much 
in the community, much in the approbation of God 
to inspire her to go forward, bearing with humility 
and patience the scoffs and sneers of her opposers, 
and do with her might and power the work given her, 
and some day many will arise and call her blessed.— 
L.JE.H., in The Christian Guardian. 

DANGEROUS INTIMACY BETWEEN THE SEXES, 

Some one says men will lose all respect for wo- 
men by them meeting at the polls ; by mingling 
in public affairs women will lose that delicacy that 
gives them both grace and influence. Are womanly 
qualities God's gift, or are they the result of acci- 
dent or education? If God endows women with grace, 
genius and refinement, influence, tenderness and 
moral purity, is it probable that the exercise of large 
public duty will efface all these natural marks of 
her original constitution? 

In an oriental country, a physician can only pre- 
scribe for a woman by feeling the pulse in an arm 
thrust, from behind a curtain. Here we have a close 
intimacy between the physician and his patients, 
the preacher and his parishioners, the school super- 
intendent and his teachers, the merchant and his 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 65 

book-keepers, the manufacturer and his employees, 
and yet they do not lose respect for each other. 
And certainly intimacy of the sexes at the polls 
would be no worse than these things mentioned. 

And if we really prefer Turkish institutions, let 
us either go where they prevail, or adopt them. 
But if the American system is the best, let us make it 
consistent with itself. 

It is not the prerogative of men to keep women 
womanly. Certainly they can be trusted to defend 
the delicacy of their own sex. 

We shall know what is womanly only when women 
have the same equality of development, and the same 
liberty of choice as men. 

Mrs. M. H. Boardman, of Nevada, writes : 

Dear Sisters : — Aim for the ballot. That is the 
key to the situation. Never falter. When a friend 
or an apologist of drunkenness and debauchery and 
vice whispers in your ear, "how unwomanly you 
are," never flinch. God has planted in the heart of 
woman the seeds of all pure womanly feeling, and 
no man can uproot their growth by sneer. 

And, my sister, let us turn to ourselves. Let us 
consider that there is not even a shade of truth in this 
unending charge of unwomanliness and attempting 
to get out of our sphere. Let us measure ourselves 
by the most orthodox standard of conservative 
womanhood. 

Here I stand to-day— the mother of eight children ; 
my life given up unreservedly and untiringly to 
their rearing. Fourteen years a resident of this 
town, my face is scarcely known upon your streets. 
A Pharisee of Pharisees, touching the law of wifely 
and motherly duty — I can say in the language of 
Mrs. Browning: 



66 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

"No fly-blow gossip ever specked my life: 
My name is clean and open as this hand, 

Whose glove there's not a man dares blab about, 
As if he had touched it freely.'' 
And yet I am met by a hiss and that word "un- 
womanly" if I wish to lay my hand upon the ma- 
chinery which produces the laws to so great an ex- 
tent that make or mar the children I must rear. Is 
then this well-earned crown of true womanhood so 
light a bauble that a breath can whirl it from the 
brow into the dust? I trow not. 

If the men of the state plant a saloon upon every 
street-corner to lure our children to destruction/ are 
we to be counted unwomanly that we desire to have 
a hand in outlawing that hideous traffic which is 
alive at the behest of Satan that he may make of the 
innocent children that to-day play about our doors, 
the murderers, the thieves, the prostitutes, the 
lunatics, and the suicides of to-morrow? That traf- 
fic is Satan's most powerful device for taking the 
pure crystalline souls of the children of whom the 
Master said, "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven," 
and making them lurid and opaque and fit only to 
be hurled into those realms of Plutonian night and 
eternal sorrow. Is that a fate that it is wom- 
anly to quietly endure for our children? Is that a 
fate that it is unwomanly to attempt to avert? God 
forbid. If my little child creeps into the garden, 
and I see a deadly serpent coiled to spring upon it, . 
am I unwomanly if I seize a bludgeon and slay that 
reptile? Would you tell me that after that rough 
deed my hand will never again be gentle to caress 
my child? 

But a deadly serpent is far less to be feared than 
this other evil. "I will forewarn you whom ye shall 
fear," said the Blessed Master. "Fear him which, 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 67 

after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; 
yea I say unto you, Fear him." 

And yet we are told in a strait like this, "Oh, go 
back. Take your needle and do fancy work — the 
needle is the peculiar insignia of woman's true 
sphere. Don't think ; leave that for the sterner sex. 
Make your home so beautiful that your boys will 
stay there in preference to any other place, and 
don't, above all things, try to dabble in the filthy 
pool of politics." 

Now that sounds nice. Satan was always plausi- 
ble. Then while you are embroidering and painting 
your china and making wall banners and screens 
and flattering yourself that you are sweet and wo- 
manly, Satan steps around the corner there and he 
builds a palace, and fills it with superb hangings and 
glittering mirrors and splendid, sensual pictures and 
brilliant lights, and into flashing crystal he pours 
the seductive beverage that steals away the brain 
and the principle, and fits his victim for deeds of 
shame and pollution. 

It is all right to make your home as beautiful as 
you can, but it is right too to think and work for 
the coming of the Lord ; to use your influence to 
raise the standard of purity in this nation, and to 
set your face against the feeling which prompts the 
enduring of this awful trade in souls. This oughtest 
thou to do and not to leave the other undone. 

You cannot always hold your child in your arms 
— always keep him within the w T alls of home, howev- 
er beautiful it may be. Some day, before long, he 
will walk down street there, and he will take in all 
the sights. He will notice that the men who have 
called at his home are entering a splendid room there 
on the corner — honorable men whom you greet in 
passing. 



68 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

His father says "Stand here a minute sonny, till 
I come out," and the child sees through the door as 
it opens and shuts how beautiful it looks in there, 
and he hears the click of glasses and the laugh and 
the jest, and when his father comes out and leads 
him away, he answers his questions by "Oh, you 
are not old enough to go in there," and that makes 
the child curious, and when he is older he goes in, 
and he finds out all about it, and he thinks l*>me is 
dull. And if, after awhile, you get frightened 
and tell your boy that the saloon is the open 
door of hell, he doubts you, and before you 
know it, O God! your boy is gone. And you have 
been so womanly all the time and have not lifted a 
finger to oppose it. Bah ! I sicken of such woman- 
liness as that. 

Now who destroyed that boy? First of all, the 
law-makers, who fostered this hellish business and 
licensed it and protected it, and no woman's love or 
thought was invoked to save her child. O sisters, 
lift up your eyes and behold! the fields are already 
white to the harvest. You need a sickle. Use all 
your woman's arts and arguments to gain possession 
of one, so that at that great day you may come re- 
joicing and bringing your sheaves with you. 

Do your utmost to make this world a cleaner, safer 
place for your children to live in, and never, never 
doubt that your own woman's heart knows what is 
womanly work better than any man or any fiend 
alive can tell. Never, never let the absurd heresy 
enter your brain that it is more womanly to dance 
and dress and play and flirt than to do the world's 
work. Relegate from henceforth that pernicious 
doctrine to those precincts which are at once the 
exponent of its value and the natural outcome of 
its acceptance — the harems of the Orient and the 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 69 

brothels of the Occident. Just now the world is 
convulsed by the horrible infamies exposed by the 
Pall Mall Gazette, infamies which are rife, too, in 
our own land. Sister, without liquor, manhood 
could never become debased. Those horrid, crawl- 
ing things, that slimy brood of infamies, are all 
hatched and nurtured by the traffic we oppose. 
Now we will be told, "Oh! don't mention such 
things— really, now, women ought not to know 
about them — women ought never read about them.' , 
You have all heard that kind of drivel, and you 
have all seen the look of mock-modesty creep into 
some foolish woman's face as she simperingly said : 
* 'Oh! I never do; I won't even open the papers." 
Shame! shame! when her whole woman's soul should 
burn with indignation against this awful business of 
making offal of the daughters of the land, and de- 
sire to save the innocent ones. Queen Victoria, the 
model ruler, the chaste wife, the faithful mother, 
the noble daughter of a kingly line is not ashamed 
to put herself on record against these crimes before 
the world, and her written words borne through the 
streets of London, add yet another to the long list of 
virtuous examples. Right here again a woman's 
hand is needed in law-making. No mother, with 
true motherly heart, but would rather see her tender 
little daughter drawn and quartered in the street 
before her eyes, that so her pure soul might escape 
from her tortured body to rise unstained to God ; 
far rather would she accept this fate for her daugh - 
ter than that other fate of inexpressible pollution, 
the author of which— by the laws we live under — is 
held as committing no crime, no offense. 

Listen to me, dear sisters, ponder what I say. 
Your little daughter— almost a baby yet— whose 
twelfth birthday you celebrated just yesterday — 



70 FEMALE F1XOSOEY. 

whose trusting, confiding sweetness is the delight 
of your heart — is to-day the lawful prey of any vil- 
lain who may entrap her. He will walk your streets 
unwhipped of justice. Wake up! Rouse ye! Why 
will ye sleep ! The world needs you — your children 
need you. This demon of Intemperance leading 
by the hand the demon of Sensuality is stalking 
through the land blighting the bud of every pure 
affection, and substituting therefore impurity and 
all things abhorent. Let us remember those words 
of awful significance, "Ye are the temple of God. 
If any man defile the temple of God him shall God 
destroy." Let us teach them to our children, and 
teach them that when into this temple is introduced 
the fiend of Intemperance all things pure and holy 
flee apace, and quickly swarm in dark shapes of evil 
and sensuality and brutality, till no besom can be 
found strong enough to sweep it clean again. 

Politics is no filthy pool. It is rather the burning 
bush, and the voice comes from it, "Take off thy shoes 
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou stand- 
est is holy ground.' ' So should be approached the 
place of the law-maker — the place where God once 
deigned to stand. But when men wallow in a filthy 
pool instead of being obedient to the heavenly vision, 
then come laws worthy of the pool— laws licensing 
crime and degradation— laws which give the inno- 
cent a prey to the crafty — laws which oppress the 
widow and the fatherless— laws which are a delusion 
and a snare. 

When the hundreds of thousands of Christian wo- 
men of America shall arise from their knees and go 
forth to vote as they pray, think you the home will 
be forgotten? Think you the saloon will long live to 
menace the home? Think you the little daughters 
will be forgotten? Think you the house of her 



FEMALE FIIvOSOFY. 71 

"whose steps take hold on hell" will be allowed in 
close proximity to our homes and places of business, 
and that she will hail our young sons on our public, 
frequented thoroughfares, and flaunt the insignia of 
her shame in the eyes of our young daughters? Nay, 
verily. 

Under the fostering care of our present law- 
makers, the saloons have multiplied till the drink 
bill of this nation foots up each year fifteen hundred 
millions of dollars. 

Just think of it. Try to comprehend it if you 
can. Fifteen hundred millions of dollars worse than 
wasted. Then try to think how the blessed millen- 
nium would be hastened on if, instead of that vast 
sum being spent in the destruction of all that is best 
in humanity, it were turned to its elevation — 
turned to the Christianizing and educating of the 
children— to the spread of religion and art and sci- 
ence. How clean and safe and beautiful our cities 
would become. How colleges would multiply and 
fill. How empty the jails would be. How few sui- 
cides would occur. How crime would creep and 
slink into by-ways instead of unblushingly pushing 
itself into the chief places of the land. Imagine it! 
and all these results will follow the destruction of 
the liquor traffic as surely as the day follows the sun- 
rising. It is a great work. It will take time. But 
only faith in God, linked to earnest, enlightened en- 
deavor are needed 

In 1891, Florence Huntley wrote a symposium for 
a N. Y. paper, from the answers of fifty members of 
Congress. Col. W. P. C. Breckenridge declared 
himself unalterably opposed to woman suffrage be- 
cause "it would affect the present relations between 
husband and wife." 



72 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 



IT IS BEYOND HER SPHERE. 

V/V/ HAT is woman's sphere? The world is 
*" ^ her sphere. There is scarcely any place 
she has not hazarded her life in going when she 
could do good. She has gone to the heathen to 
teach them of Christ, she has gone to the savage 
to tame him so that men could preach to him and 
then kill him with rum ; she has gone to the igno- 
rant negro to educate him for citizenship ; she has 
gone to every evil place we can imagine to try to 
bring back and reform her own and others' hus- 
bands ; she has gone to the slums to elevate the de- 
graded ; she has gone to the courts, jails and prisons, 
(not for the reason that men go there;) she has 
gone to the legislative halls to plead for decent and 
just measures, that corrupt men were opposed to, 
and to protest against those they favored. And not- 
withstanding all this, not much of a howl has gone 
up because she was beyond her sphere. No man 
will say she is beyond her sphere when she is doing 
low, dirty, unpleasant and offensive work of reform 
that he will not stoop to do himself. Is there any- 
thing beyong her sphere? Are her meals more 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 73 

poorly gotton up, and do the victuals have less fla- 
vor because she has done the above named things? 
Is she more untidy in her dress, more negligent 
about her house- work? Are the beds not as well 
made, the sweeping, patching, sewing, and milking 
as well done ; does she not split as much kindling, 
carry as much wood and coal and water, feed the 
cows, calves, pigs and chickens as well; does she 
not go to market, attend church, Sabbath school 
and prayer meeting, and do many other things men 
are too sickly and weakly and lazy to do ; and is she 
not as good company, and does she not care for his 
children as well where, and since she has been vot- 
ing as before she enjoyed that privilege? Feelix is 
asking for information. 

The cities and towns of the following states may 
answer: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Dela- 
ware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, 
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New 
Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, New York, 
Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, 
Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

Feelix believes that his wife will be just as faith- 
ful to her duties and devotions when she gets to vote 
as she has always been, and he does not fear he will 
have to rock the cradle and keep the children more 
then, than now, Neither does he fear her becoming 
less intelligent or entertaining or companionable, or 
less capable of taking care of his children. 



74 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

Saying "It is beyond her sphere is only an excuse 
for excluding a disfranchised class. 

Bancroft says that the original charter of Del- 
aware put the government into the hands of a royal 
council, on the ground that "politics lie beyond the 
profession of merchants. " So the merchants who 
came out with Sir Edward Andros to take away the 
liberties of the New England Colonies, wrote back 
in great contempt : "It is pleasant to behold poor 
cobblers and pitiful mechanics, who have neither 
house nor land, strutting and making no mean fig- 
ure at their elections." Now, the merchants and 
mechanics have the ballot and it is only women 
against whom the same old objection is brought up! 

"When men gravely assemble to assert their rights 
and their claims to what they feel to be justly theirs 
—to the widest personal liberty, to the amplest ed- 
ucation, to the pursuit of every honorable profes- 
sion, to an equal share in the political control of 
society, — to do, in fact, whatever God has given 
them the will and the power innocently to do,— can 
you conceive of anything more comical than a sudden 
protest from women that they are forgetting their 
sphere deserting the duties which Providence has 
assigned them— and becoming unmanly and vulgar? 
There is something quite as comical, and that is 
men saying it to women. It is not the business of 
either sex to theorize about the sphere of the other. 
It is the duty of each to secure the liberty of both. 
Give women, for instance, every opportunity of edu- 
cation that men have. If there are some branches 
of knowledge improper for them to acquire — some 
whioh are in their nature unwomanly — they will 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 75 

know it a thousand-fold better than men. It is not 
the duty of men to keep women ignorant, that they 
may continue to be women. But they have as much 
right to restrict their liberty of choice in education, 
as in any other direction. 

The woman's rights movement is the simple claim 
that the same opportunity and liberty that a man 
has in civilized society shall be extended to the wo- 
man who stands at his side — equal or unequal in 
special powers, but an equal member of society. 
She must prove her power as he proves his. When 
Rosa Bonheur paints a vigorous and admirable pic- 
ture of Normandy horses, she proves that she has a 
hundred-fold more right to do it than scores of 
botchers and bunglers in color, who wear coats and 
trousers, and whose right, therefore, nobody ques- 
tions. When the Misses Blackwell, or Miss Zackr- 
zewska, or Miss Hunt, or Miss Preston, or Miss 
Avery, accomplishing themselves in medicine, with 
a firm hand and a clear brain, carry the balm of life 
to suffering men, women and children, it is as much 
their right to do it -as much their sphere -as it is 
that of any long-haired, sallow, dissipated boy in 
spectacles, who hisses them as they go upon their 
holy mission. And so when Joan of Arc follows 
God and leads the army ; when the Maid of Sara- 
gossa loads and fires the cannon; when Mrs. Stowe 
makes her pen the heaven-appealing tongue of an 
outraged race ; when Grace Darling and Ida Lewis, 
pulling their boats through the pitiless waves, save 
fellow-creatures from drowning; when Mrs. Patten, 
the captain's wife, at sea— her husband lying help- 
lessly ill in his cabin — puts everybody aside, and her- 
self steers the ship to port. Do you ask me whether 
these are not exceptional women? I am a man and 
you are women; but Florence Nightingale, demand- 



76 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

Lng supplies for the sick soldiers in the Crimea, and 
when they are delayed by red tape, ordering a file of 
soldiers to break down the doors and bring them, 
which they do— for the brave love bravery— seems to 
me quite as womanly as the loveliest girl in the land 
dancing at the gayest ball, in a dress of which the 
embroidery is the pinched lines of starvation in an- 
other girl's face, and whose pearls are the tears of 
despair in her eyes. Jennie Lind, enchanting the 
heart of a nation ; Anna Dickinson, pleading for the 
equal liberty of her sex ; Lucretia Mott, publicly 
bearing her testimony against the sin of slavery, 
are doing what God, by his great gi£t of eloquence 
and song has appointed them to do." — Selected. 

It is further objected : "If women prere to vote, 
then, of course, she would be eligible to public of- 
fices." Well, why not? In every respect in which 
woman is known to have gifts of administration, 
why ought she not to exercise them? When a farm- 
er dies, if the wife has executive power, she carries 
on the farm ; when a merchant dies, if the wife has 
tact, she carries on the business ; if an editor dies, if 
the wife is enterprising and able, she carries on the 
newspaper; if a schoolmaster dies, and the wife is 
competent, she carries on the school or academy, 
and nobody supposes but that it is perfectly right. 
All through society, in a sort of unasserting way, 
woman goes out of what is considered her sphere, 
and nobody thinks but it is wrong. And so it 
should be recognized as her right to engage in 
everything for which she is fitted, public affairs 
not excepted. No woman could be elected 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 77 

to the office of a Justice of the Peace unless there 
was a general conviction that she had peculiar gifts 
for its duties. The matter is surrounded with such 
safeguards of popular prejudice that no woman will 
be called to any office unless it is very apparent that 
she has a fitness for it. Wherever there are gifts, 
there should be liberty of exercise. Faculty always 
demands function. Every human being has a nat- 
ural right to do whatever he or she can do well.' ' 

Vandelia Varnum says: "I confess I do not 
know what her sphere is, and more than that I do 
not want to know. I know that the majority love 
first and last and best of all the home. No power 
on earth nor beneath the earth could wrench that 
love from them or make them false to it. I know 
there are some that fail there, not from outward con- 
ditions but from inward conditions. The woman 
that knows nothing of love, that over-powering, all- 
conquering, self-sacrificing passion, may marry, but 
I know she never ought to. The woman that does 
not realize the sacrednessof motherhood, that can 
not comprehend those precious gifts from heaven, 
and is not willing to do all and suffer all, and for- 
sake all for their sake — she may bear children, but 
I know she never ought to. Tell me that such are 
to minister to man, to make and brighten homes and 
people the earth, and I know when you tell me so 
that you have no comprehension of these holy duties. 
Mark me, such are not spoiled by environments, they 
are simply unfitted by nature. There is a place for 
them elsewhere, and the world should not make it 
harder for them to enter where their tastes lead, 
than for man. The idea that the bars must be put 
up to keep woman in her " sphere" is too absurd. 



78 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

As well bar the heavens to keep the mother bird on 
her nest. 

And then there are those in every way fitted for 
the home, whom the Lord has led to a wider field of 
service. No doubt that Methodist Bishop who 
wanted to marry Miss Willard thought her ideal 
place was at his fireside, but there are few who do not 
believe that another work was intended for her from 
the beginning, and that the world has been greatly 
enriched by her devotion to it. In that she and oth- 
ers have these home yearnings and attributes lies 
their power as teachers and leaders of the world. 
He, who would lift the world, must touch in sym- 
pathy every side of it. 

So, I say, I do not want to know what woman's 
"sphere" is, for fear, if I did, I might do as some 
others try to do, clip and trim her to fit their own 
notions. A king it is said, once thought he would 
give every man in his dominion a suit of clothes. 
Twenty ordered them all made after one pattern. 
Some were found to be too long and some too short, 
some too slack and some too tight, and in each 
case he ordered the individual to be clipped or 
stretched, inflated or squeezed, according to the 
needs of the case. That is what some are trying to 
do with woman. As for me, I am willing to trust 
the Lord in making her," and trust her common sense 
after she is made. 

It is ticklish business going back and behind com- 
mon sense in dealing with any question, but those 
that look back, instead of forward, that counsel 
with custom instead of reason, with tradition in- 
stead of God, are likely to get in some difficult 
places. For instance I ask a person, why a woman 
should sing in public and not speak, why should she 
recite the thougths of others and not her own 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 79 

thoughts ;and he can not answer me, and no one can. 
I ask another why she should perform in the theater 
half clad, and not, in suitable attire, speak to the 
people on the questions of the day ; why she should 
sit it public exhibition, in the theatre box in scant 
dress, and not in modest dress pass quietly to the 
ballot-box to voice her convictions of right ; and he 
can not tell me, and no one can. I ask another why 
women should be worked and pushed and promoted 
to everything in the church and not allowed to rep- 
resent the church at her gatherings ; why she should 
teach and pray and exhort with or without a text 
and give Bible readings, and not be allowed to 
preach ; and he can not tell me, and no one can. 

Sick, sick, sick of this idiocy over "woman's 
sphere." Give man his freedom, give woman her 
freedom, and they will both find their sphere, bait 
let no one think to escape God's wrath when he says 
to a single soul, 'Thus far and no farther." ' 

"They talk about a woman's sphere, 
As though it had no limit ; 
There's not a place in earth or heaven, 
There's not a task to mankind given, 
There's not a blessing or a woe, 
There's not a whisper, yes or no, 
There's not a life or death or birth 
That has a feather's weight of worth, 
Without a woman in it." — Selected. 



80 FEMALE FILOSOEY. 

THE POLLS NOT A FIT PLACE FOR WOMEN. 

V/V/ HAT place is decent where women is ex- 
eluded? If woman's presence and influence 
were withdrawn from men they would soon be below 
the beast. 

The difference between the smoking car and the 
ladies car on the train gives a good example of the 
difference between the polls with women excluded 
and the polls with women included. 

Are not some of our churches unfit for women, 
with their floors covered with tobacco quids, and 
juice squirted around and on everything? Surely men 
love darkness rather than light, because their deeds 
are evil. 

Some one asked the editor of "The Corner Stone" 
if chewing tobacco and squirting the juice around 
was a good example for a preacher to set before 
young people? The answer was : "My pen is not 
sufficient for this, it would take a hog-pen." Simi- 
larity is easily seen in the suggestion. What kind 
of places for women are our country stores, with vile 
smoke and spit? Yet, how many men do their wives 
marketing because the store is an unfit place for 
women, or go to church in their wives' place because 
of the unfitness of the place for women? If these 
conditions exist in spite of woman's presence and 
uplifting influence, what would be the conditions if 
women were excluded? If these things are done in 
a green tree, what would they do in the dry? 



FEMALE KILOSOFY. 81 

There is nothing that will clean up our voting 
places so quickly and make them fit places for men 
as well as women, as to give the ballot to women . When 
the women of Massachusetts secured the right to 
vote, the legislature, almost unanimously, immedi- 
ately prohibited smoking and drinking at all the 
voting places. The women of New York say they 
were treated at the polls more like when the boys 
used to take them to the country dances than ever in 
their lives since the days of "Auld Lang Syne." 

The women got an extra coach put on the trains 
for drinkers, smokers and swearers, and other men 
not fit for their company, when they demanded it. 
What kind of places would our Post Offices be if 
Uncle Sam did not prohibit vulgar and foul lan- 
guage, smoking and swearing? 

And so if you give women the ballot and the right 
to be present at the polls, you will have no more 
indecent polling places, boisterous, vulgar and pro- 
fane conventions, and no more saloon caucuses. 

We cannot expect to get the saloon out of politics 
as long as we get our politics out of the saloons. As 
long as the caucuses are held in saloons none but 
saloonatics will attend them. Give us decent 
places to hold our caucuses and elections, and decent 
people will attend. Give the better class the ballot 
and that will also secure the better places for pub- 
lic meetings and good people will attend, take inter- 
est and drive the saloon and its influence out of 
politics. 



82 £EMAI,£ FILOSOFY. 



Ex-Ckief justice Fisher, of Wyoming, where the 
women have voted since 1869, says: "I wish I 
could show the people who are so wonderfully exer- 
cised on the subject of woman suffrage, just how it 
works. I have seen the effects of it, and instead of 
being a means of encouragement to fraud and cor- 
ruption, it tends to greatly purify elections and give 
better government." 

Dr. Gregg says: "If the present condition of our 
politics be such that our women, in doing political 
duty, are necessarily in danger of unsexing them- 
selves, and of losing their sense of delicacy, then 
the duty of the hour is not to prohibit women from 
exercising their political rights; the duty of the 
hour is to take out of politics the things which 
would unsex and which would destroy the fine sense 
of womanly delicacy. The very question admits 
that women are good and right and pure, but that 
politics are wrong and bad and corrupt. The very 
question admits that politics need, for their regen- 
eration, the very elements which women alone can 
contribute. The objection couched in the question 
is tantamount to this : "Would you bring women 
down to the level of men?" This is rough on men. 

Who will corrupt our women when they go to the 
caucus and to the polls? Will you? Will their 
fathers, and their sons, and their brothers be the 
guilty parties? These are the men who go to the 
polls. Mrs. Gaskell makes one of her girl charac- 
ters say: S I know these men; my father was a 
man.' Will the men whom our women meet in our 
churches be the guilty parties? These are the men 
who are in the caucus, or, if not there, should be 
there. The objection couched in the question is a 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 83 

slander upon American manhood, than which there 
is no finer type of manhood on the face of the earth. 
Besides this, if there were a single miserable mascu- 
line biped mean enough or low enough to insult any 
woman while in the discharge of her political duties 
on election day, there is moral sentiment sufficient 
in every polling district of the Republic to put that 
man behind the prison-bars instanter " 

A Washington correspondent writes to an ex- 
change : 

' 'I am in favor of electing at least one dozen women 
as members of the House, woman suffrage or no wo- 
man suffrage. The place is so foul that to sit for 
two hours in its bad-smelling atmosphere completely 
prostrates one. The House appoints committee 
after committee to look after the "ventilation," and 
it results in nothing. What the place needs is a 
regular house cleaning, the floor scrubbed, the cel- 
lars white-washed, the carpets shaken, the walls 
frescoed and the woodwork repainted. If there were 
a few women members, they would not be there a 
week before they would have the bad-smelling old 
place fit to live in. It is not fit to live in now. It is 
dangerous. And yet, from 1,000 to 3,000 people are 
there from six to ten hours every day. Please elect 
a few women this fall and have the place cleaned. 



84 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

A WOMAN'S PLACE IS AT HOME. 



\A/ HO says so? "The Wine and Spirit 

* Gazette," the leading liquor paper, and 

other birds of similar plumage, who are afraid they 

will lose their fine feathers if the women get a pick 

at them. 

Here is what it says: "If these ambituous wo- 
men of to-day would but discharge conscientiously 
the duties of mothers and wives, we would have 
greater respect for them." "The Corner Stone" 
replies: "Probably they don't know that. We 
presume they would do a great deal to have the 
"respect" of a booze editor. Why don't you adver- 
tise: 'Booze editor's respect given to mothers and 
wives for not interfering with the saloon?" ' 

Is it the bar-maid they want to stay at home? Is 
it the poor, lost girl, selling her soul for shame? Is 
it the women who buy and drink whiskey and beer, 
or is it the women who do not stay at home and take 
in washing to get money for their husbands to spend 
over the bar, and to get him from behind the bars? 
Is it not the women who are conscientiously dis- 
charging their duties as mothers and wives, con- 
strained by the love of home, that liquor dealers 
want to stay at home, lest they close the bars, empty 
the barrels, and compel the bar-tenders and brewers 
to make an honest living? "Always do the thing to 
which your enemy objects" is a maxim of war and 
will work well when dealing with the Devil, too. 



FEMALE EILOSOEY. 85 

The Pacific Wine and Spirit Review, says : "The 
liquor trade may as well come to the conclusion, soon- 
er or later, that a great danger is found in Woman 
Suffrage. On general principles, nine out of ten of 
the American women are opposed to the saloon as 
an institution. The liquor trade need expect no 
quarter from the unreasoning women. They must 
be beaten by votes." 

There is no enemy dreaded so much by liquor- 
dealers and saloon-keepers as a woman with the bal- 
lot in her hand. Secret circulars sent out by them 
intercepted by a temperance leader state this explic- 
ity. One of these is addressed to a ligislator, and 
reads to this effect: "Set your heel upon the woman 
suffrage movement every time, for the ballot in the 
hand of women means the downfall of our trade." 

The Brewer's Convention at Chicago passed this 
resolution by a unanimous vote : "Resolved, that we 
are opposed to woman suffrage everywhere and al- 
ways; for when woman has the ballot, she will vote 
solid for prohibition, and woman's vote is the last 
hope of the Prohibitionists." 

Christian people might easily be persuaded that 
the majority of mothers would vote for the dramshop, 
but the Devil and the brewers know better. 

The home, measured by men's minds, has been as- 
serted to be woman's sphere, but she has proven her- 
self fit for a larger sphere. And since she has proven 
that she is capable of a larger sphere, that sphere is 
enlarging, 

The chairman of the congressional committee 



86 FEMALE FILOSOKY. 

asked Mrs. Stanton whether women would not lose 
much of the refining influences that now bless our 
race, if political opportunities were thrown open to 
her. "What! Lose refining influences because the 
field of her opportunity is widened ? If that be true , 
the Turk is a great deal more logical than the Amer- 
ican. There we have the refining influences of the 
seraglio, the household sphere. There we find wo- 
men preserved, not only from the rude gaze of men, 
not only from the degrading commerce of the world, 
but even from the kisses of the sun upon her face. 
If her sphere be indeed always to stay at home to 
look after children, whether she have any children 
or not, the customs of our oriential brothers are ad- 
mirably calculated to accomplish this result." 

Queen Victoria meets in council and deliberates 
with her ministers, and if it be unwomanly and un- 
fit for women to vote, certainly no woman should 
ever be Queen. ' 'Nothing but a Woman' ' has given 
some countries the best government they ever had. 

The Bar Association of Carlisle, Pa., declined to 
admit a young woman to be examined for admission 
to the bar. In explaining its action, its representa- 
tive publicly said: 

"Whenever men stay at home, nurse the children, 
and do the housework, while the men battle with the 
world, it will be time enough for the Carlisle Bar 
to modify its rules and admit women to its member- 
ship." 

The American Lawyer said: "Nonsense! The 



FEMALE F1LOSOFY. 87 

Carlisle Bar Association ought to awake from its 
Rip Van Winkle sleep, and try to catch up with the 
procession." The Chicago Legal News quoted the 
foregoing, and added: "'Hit them again, for they 
deserve it.' Women are legally eligible for admis- 
sion to the bar in Pennsylvania, and it is childish 
for a local Bar Association to set up its own belated 
prejudices in opposition to the laws of the State." ' 

A few months later Judge Weand handed down an 
opinion by which women were made eligible to ad- 
mission to the Montgomery county bar. 

Sydney Smith said many years ago, in urging the 
claims of women to a higher education, "Nothing is 
more common or more stupid than to take the actual 
for the possible, — to believe that all which is is all 
that can be ; first, to laugh at every proposed devia- 
tion from practice as impossible, then, when it is 
carried into effect, to be astonished that it did not 
take place before." 

. "I say that this movement is a plea for justice, and 
I assert that the equal rights of women, not as citi- 
zens but as human beings, have never been acknowl- 
edged. There is no audacity so insolent, no tyranny 
so wanton, no inhumanity so revolting, as the spirit 
which says to any human being, or any class of hu- 
man beings, "You shall be developed just as far as 
we choose, and as fast as we choose, and your mental 
and moral life shall be subject to our pleasure!" and 
as Mrs. Howe has said, this is what men have al- 
ways said to women. 



88 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

This is true of every condition of society, and of 
every period. Edward Lear, the artist, travelling in 
Greece, says that he was one day jogging along 
with an Albanian peasant, who said to him, "Wo- 
men are really better than donkeys for carrying bur- 
dens, but not so good as mules." This was the 
honest opinion of barbarism — the honest feeling of 
Greece to-day. 

Pericles said, "The greatest glory of woman is to 
be least talked of among men." Had Pericles lived 
to-day, he would have agreed that to be talked of 
among men as Miss Martineau and Florence Night- 
ingale are, as Mrs. Somerville and Maria Mitchell 
are, is as great a glory as to be the mother of the 
Graechi, Women in Greece, the mothers of Greece, 
were an inferior and degraded class. And Grote 
sums up their whole condition when he says : "Ev- 
erything which concerned their lives, their happi- 
ness, or their rights, was [determined for them by 
male relatives, and they seem to have been destitute 
of all mental culture and refinement. 

These were the old Greeks. Will you have Rome? 
The chief monument of Roman civilization is its law, 
which underlies our own; and Buckle quotes the 
great commentator on that law as saying that it was 
the distinction of the Roman law that it treated 
women not as persons but as things. Or go to the 
most ancient civilization ; to China which was old 
when Greece and Rome were young. The famous 
French Jesuit missionary, Abbe Hue, mentions one 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 89 

of the most tragical facts recorded — that there is in 
China a class of women who hold that, if they are 
only true to certain vows during this life, they shall, 
as a reward, change their form after death and re- 
turn to earth as men. This distinguished traveller 
also says that he was one day talking with a certain 
Master Ting, a very shrewd Chinamen, whom he 
was endeavoring to convert. "But," said Ting, 
"what is the special object of your preaching 
Christianity?" "Why, to convert you and save your 
souls," said the Abbe. "Well, then, why do you 
try to convert the women? asked Master Ting. "To 
save their souls," said the missionary. "But wo- 
men have no souls," said Master Ting; "you can't 
expect to make Christians of women." And he 
was so delighted with the idea that he went out 
shouting, "Hi! hi! now I shall go home and tell my 
wife she has a soul, and I guess she will laugh as 
loudly as I do !" — Selected. 

How long will it be before every man will go home 
and tell his wife she has a political soul and both 
will laugh loudly together? 

WOMEN DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO VOTE. 

V/W HAT a pity ! We suspect most married 

men think at least one woman knew enough 

to vote when he was a "candidate" and she voted in 

favor of him, and he was elected, A great many 



90 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

men are elected by "nothing but a woman's" vote. 
If it took two votes to elect one he would be defeat- 
ed, because no two would want the same lord. It 
is not hard to tell where the compliment is placed 
when they say, "She don't know enough to vote." 
We suspect many more men not yet married (but 
would like to be) will think some woman knows 
enough to vote, and some may even trust at least a 
half-dozen of them. Some men, when they want to 
be elected, become standing candidates. Others are 
running candidates . In our fast age we must run 
in order to get there. Most men will allow some one 
woman, at least, a vote at him. Sometimes they 
would not object to allowing two or three chances to 
the same one, provided the first one fails. Is it not 
strange that men allow maidens and widows to vote, 
but say women with husbands do not know enough 
to vote? How kind they are to assume the duties of 
their wives ! Has her voting for him unfitted her 
for further suffrage? Has that single vote proven 
the treachery of her judgment? Was her voting in 
favor of him such an abuse of the franchise power 
as to justify him from that time on in being opposed 
to her exercising the right ever afterwards? We 
really think that it is the muchness of the voting, 
and not the principle, that men are opposed to, 
when they allow it once and then object afterwards. 
The most important voting, and the most of it, is 
done by the women all over the country. And the 
Beacon Bays; "It seems strange to hear mfo^ 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 91 

ters, who owe their positions in their churches to the 
vote of three women to one man, stand up and argue 
that the Scriptures are opposed to women voting. 
It is safe to say that there are but few churches in 
the United States where the preacher is chosen by 
popular vote, in which it is not the case that the 
preacher owes his position to the women, and usual- 
ly owes his salary to their labor. And yet you will 
sometimes hear such preachers arguing that the 
Scriptures condemn wonan's ballot." Spiritual ad- 
visers — Pastors, Elders, Deacons, Stewards, Super- 
intendents and other religious officers, which are far 
more important than civil officers, and therefore the 
responsibility of the voters much greater, are elect- 
ed by what some men would term weak minded wo- 
men, they voting, on an average, four or five to every 
one man. But still men insist they do not know 
enough to vote for an officer to go around and assess 
dogs, and collect that tax and distribute it. 

In many of the States women may vote for school 
purposes. She is trusted in this most important 
branch of the Government service. She may vote 
money for the erection of a school-house, but not for 
the building of a court-house or jail. She partici- 
pates in the selection and support of teachers for our 
children in whose welfare we are so much interested, 
but she can not take part in choosing the jailor who 
has the custody of criminals. She can discharge the 
higher duty, but is disqualified for the lower. Is 
not this a distinction without a reason? Does it not 






92 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

look like absolute inconsistency? Should we not 
sit down and reason together, to see if deep-rooted 
prejudice does not lie at the foundation of the op- 
position to female suffrage? 

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe was out in the garden 
one day where her servant Sambo was at work. She 
said: "Sambo, we people of the North have done a 
great deal for your people." "Yes, Mrs. Stowe, you 
have done a great deal for us, and we can never be 
thankful enough to the white people for it," said 
Sambo. "Well, Sambo," said Mrs Stowe, "Since 
we did so much towards getting the ballot for your 
people, you ought to use your influence to secure the 
ballot for us women." "Law me, Mrs. #towe," 
said Sambo, looking up at her astonished, "does you 
think you knows enough to vote?" 

By the last census it appears that -89 per cent, of 
our females could read and write, while a large pro- 
portion of the men who vote can not read the ballot 
they cast. 

It is probable that the mass of women, having 
more home leisure, as a rule, than the mass of men, 
who are occupied in their daily employments, are 
better able to inform themselves on current questions 
of the day. Women read more than men. The 
libraries show this to be so, and every newsdealer 
and periodical publisher knows it. 

A noted paper reports that the College girls of 
Canada cannot be stigmatized as mentally inferior 
to their mothers. McGill College, Montreal, which 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 93 

is co-educational, has just afforded an excellent 
test. Out of eleven persons graduating with honors, 
six are women; out of five medalists, three are wo- 
men. A college stati stician in going over the figures , 
discovered that, in proportion to their numbers, the 
women had done three times as well as the men. 

Secretary of the New York State University re- 
ports 23,556 girls and 18,243 boys in the seminaries 
and academies of the State of New York, the former 
being 55 per cent, of the whole. Of honor creden- 
tials, the girls received this year 298 to 140 granted 
to the boys— a proportion of 68 per cent, for the 
girls. "The number of girls who entered college last 
year from Regents' schools was 84 per cent, greater 
than the year before, and this year will show a 
smaller increase. "At this rate," says the secre- 
tary, "it looks as if early in the next century the 
colleges would graduate more women than men, just 
as the academies do now." 

Rev. J. B. Gambrell, one of the most gifted Bap- 
tist ministers of the South, and president of Mercer 
University, Ga., writes a spicy article in the Bap- 
tist and Reflector, urging the boys to wake up and 
cultivate their morals and brains that they may be 
fit company for the girls of today. He says : 

"From my window I can see turrets of the first 
female college the world ever knew. It is a nine- 
teenth century innovation. All before that, women 
had to learn things from their husbands, if they 
could afford the luxury of a husband. Then hus- 



94 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

bands were lords. They could whip their wives in 
peace, and, under the common law of England, 
could sell them. Inanevil(?) hour, so to speak, 
these Georgia people set up a college to educate wo- 
men ; the example was contagious and see now where 
we are at. We might have known it. A smart 
woman is an over match for a fool man every time. 

Let me tell you some things. Some years ago I 
made a thorough examination into the state of ed- 
ucation as to the sexes in one Southern State. I 
found that for every boy graduated, there were be- 
tween five and six girls who took diplomas. And 
beyond doubt the girls were just as well educated as 
the boys. That was ten years ago. The dispropor- 
tion is greater now. A remarkably well informed 
lady of Indiana told me that the girl graduates of 
the high schools number twenty to one boy. Amus- 
ing! you say. Well, in one Southern city where I 
happened to know the facts, the disproportion is 
even greater than twenty to one, taking a dozen 
years as the basis of calculation, Now put this with 
what I said above, and as Mr. Cleveland in his solid 
way would say, we confront a condition, not a the- 
ory. The weight of intelligence in the country is 
being transferred— has been transferred — to femin- 
ine hands." 

It seems but a short time since Dr. E. H. Clarke 
published his book, "Sex in Education." In it he 
iterated and reiterated with great solemnity that the 
higher education of women meant their physical and 



FEMALE E1XOSOFY. 95 

domestic ruin. His book is now rogarded as mere 
rubbish, and his conjectures as falsehoods. 

The common dude, fop or figurehead does 
not display a very great amount of brains, 
yet he can vote " early and often." The most 
ignorant, vile, criminally degraded Dago that 
Italy can send us, who can tell no more about our 
government than that it is a "Georga Washee 
government," and that it is rubd by a "Georga 
Washee people," and a few other similar, equally 
intelligent answers, can take out naturalization 
papers and vote within a few years afterward. 
Miss Willard and many other good woman of the 
land, have studied our constitution, have taught 
it in our schools, academies and colleges, and 
yet, according to some men's idea and our lega*l 
statutes, they do not know as much as the igno- 
rant, degraded Dago. What a commentary on our 
American education and politics! What an idea 
about knowledge! Have our girls not a bet- 
ter education in general than the boys? Do they 
not stay much longer in school than the boys? 
Do they not learn as fast, if not faster than 
the boys while they are there? Do they not keep 
their intellects from being dulled and ther senses 
from being deadened, and their brain from be- 
ing muddled by the use and abuse of tobacco 
and other poisons and stimulants? And yet with 
all these things in favor of the girls, men will insist 
they do not know enough to vote . 



96 FEMALE FlLOSOtfY. 

Alas for the rarity, 
Of political charity 

Under the sun; 
Oh, it is pitiful, 
In a whole city full 

Friends she has none. 

All because "She's nothing but a woman." 
THEY ARE NOT POSTED ON POLITICS. 



I AKING- everything into consideration, women 
are better posted on politics than men. There 
is probably not more than one man in fifty who 
thinks and can talk intelligently on politics. The 
office-seekers and their helpers, or apprentices, and 
a few others are the only men who do not vite 
the same way their "fathers vote," and many of 
these are what they are because of the way they 
were brought up. How many men can see any dif- 
ference between the platforms of the Democratic and 
Republican parties other than in name ? The one is a 
Democrat because he is opposed to the Republicans, 
and the other is a Republican because he is opposed 
to the Democrats. It is a distinction without a dif- 
ference. 

If the Democrats in 1896 would adopt the 
Republican platform of 1892, and vice versa, the 
majority would not know the difference, nor leave 
the old party if they did know it. 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 97 

They both wear badges, carry torches, tramp for 
hours in rain and mud, and sing foolish songs, and 
' '-holler" for their candidates till they are hoarse, 
and they say women don't know anything about 
politics. If that be politics, save the poor women 
from it all the days of their lives. That is about all 
the majority of men know about politics. Where ig- 
norance is bliss, to be wise would be blister. 

William Dean Howells says: "Certainly, I be- 
lieve in women having the suffrage; I don't see why 
they are not as well prepared for it as nine-tenths of 
the men. Woman's influence would be a valuable 
power if it could be felt at the polls. Perhaps our 
women are not as conversant with political issues as 
English women, for in England politics are social. 
Here politics are extra-social. At dinner in En- 
gland women sit down and talk politics just as men 
do, but they have the thing all in a nutshell. I 
don't see why women cannot and do not think as 
sanely, as wholesomely as men. In fact, I think 
they do so now. The defect in their, minds is a 
matter of training, not a defect of nature." 

WOMEN CANT FIGHT. 



I «v UCY Stone says : "Some woman perils her life 

for her country every time a soldier is born. 

Day and night she does picket duty by his cradle. 

For years she is his quartermaster, and gathers his 



98 FEMALE KIU)SOFY. 

rations. And then, when he becomes a man and a 
voter, shall he say to his mother, 'If you want to 
vote you must first kill somebody?' It is a coward's 
argument?" 

Some one says: "Think of arguing with a sober 
face against a man whose brains are reduced to such 
a minimum that he solemnly asserts a woman should 
not vote because she cannot fight. In the first place, 
she can fight; in the second, men are largely exempt 
from military service ; and, in the third, there is 
not the remotest relation between firing a musket 
and casting a ballot." 

"In the days of Feudalism, women were not allowed 
to hold real estate because they could not fight to 
defend it. But the right to vote in our republic is 
not made to depend on the ability to fight. If it 
were, it would disfranchise half the voting men of 
the nation. All men over forty-five years of age 
would be counted out, as they are considered past 
the fighting age. Of these, there are 97,000 in the 
single state of Massachusetts. So would all clergy- 
men, because of the. moral service they are supposed 
to render. The published record of United States 
Military statistics shows that more than a quarter 
of the men who enlisted and were examined by the 
surgeons, during our late Civil War, were found to 
be physically unfit for service, and were not mus- 
tered into the army. When a nation goes to war, 
it claims other service of its citizens, both men and 
women, than fighting. Ten per cent, of an army is 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 99 

detailed to serve the rest, as cooks, tailors, etc., and 
they do no fighting. 

"One half our male voters have not physical 
strength to enforce laws, yet they help make them. 
Most lawyers, judges, physicians ministers, mer- 
chants, editors, authors, legislators and congressmen, 
and all men over forty five years old are exempt from 
'military service on the ground of physical incapac- 
ity. ("See statistics of the late war.,) Voting is 
the authoritative expression of an opinion. It re- 
quires intelligence, conscience, and patriotism, not 
mere muscle. 

If to clothe woman with the elective franchise is 
to take from her a tithe of her womanhood ; if she is 
to become less gentle, modest, affectionate, pure, 
sweet, we abandon the field at once. If to impose 
upon her political duties is to be inconsistent with 
her supreme duties at home, she must still devote her- 
self to the latter and keep aloof from the former. 
But I believe that the perfect State, according to my 
conception of it as the great example and instrument 
of self-government, needs the element of perfect wo- 
manhood, according to the American and the En- 
glish conception of womanhood. I believe that the 
accomplishment by this vast force and influence, the 
concentrated power of the Republic, of results for 
humanity not otherwise to be attained, can be made 
easier and surer by the aid of the qualities which 
the women of the Republic alone can furnish. The 
most taking argument against woman suffrage that 






100 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

lever heard was found in a single phrase of Dr. 
Bushnell, when he called it "the reform against na- 
ture.'' Let us see if it be against or according to 
nature to summon woman to our aid in the manage- 
ment of the affairs of the Republic. Take the things 
which the State has to-day. Take, in the first place, 
that which our opponents like chiefly to insist on 
when they discuss this question : defense against for- 
eign and domestic violence. Women will not bear 
arms or lead armies, and that is true of old men and 
of men physically disabled. Not more, I suppose, 
than one- sixth part of our population of sixty-five 
millions are fit to bear arms. But even in the mat- 
ter of war, the women of America have conceived, 
organized and rendered successful the great Sanitary 
Commission, which was the crowning glory of our 
people in the late war. There had been no substan- 
tial improvement in the care of the wounded and 
sick soldiers in the field for a century, until the wo- 
men of America took it in hand. France, which had 
brought military discipline to its highest, threw her 
sick or wounded soldier aside to die like a weed by 
the wall. Dr. Bellows, the president of the Sanita- 
ry Commission, declared: "The earliest movement 
for army relief was begun by the women of the na- 
tion, and their zeal and devotion no more flagged 
through the war than did that of the army in the 
field. The barriers of sect, caste and conventional- 
ism, which had heretofore separated them, were 
burned away in the fervid heat of their loyalty." 



FEMALE FILOSOEY. 101 

President Lincoln, according to Mrs. Livermore, 
disapproved at first of the co-operative work of wo- 
men for the relief of the army, and declared that it 
would prove a dreadful fifth wheel to the coach. 
But when the war was over, he said, speaking of 
this subject, that he must say that "if all that had 
been said by orators and poets since the creation of 
the world in praise of women were applied to the 
women of America, it would not do them justice for 
their conduct during this war." — Selected. 

Congressman John Davis, of Kansas, at a recent 
hearing before the Special Committee on Woman 
Suffrage of theU. S. Senate, says: 

"It is maintained by some that the ballot rests 
ultimately on the bullet; that majorities should rule 
minorities, because majorities can defeat minorities 
on the battlefield. It is assumed, therefore, that 
women should not cast the ballot because they can- 
not bear arms on the battlefield. The conclusion is 
w T rong. The assumption is founded on the lowest 
ethics of savagery and has no place in civilized 
society. It is assumed that, in some imaginary ex- 
igency of government, most of the non-combatants 
may vote in the majority ; the most fighting men 
able to bear arms may vote in the minority ; and 
that, in such case, a rebellious minority could not 
be coerced into submission. On the ethics of sav- 
agery such contingencies may arise, but not in civ- 
ilized society. 

In the ethics of savagery women have little in- 






102 FEMALK tflXOSOI^Y. 

fluence, and a dozen braves may bully and defy a 
thousand children and squaws. Their respect for 
the helpless is slight, and their sense of patriotism 
scarcely extends into the future. Savages are little 
troubled with anxiety for the welfare of posterity. 
In the ethics of savagery it is assumed that woman 
is not a combatant, and, hence, should be excluded 
from the ballot. In a thousand ways civilized society 
differs from savagery. There are social ties and 
sentiments of patriotism, and feelings of obligation 
to our fellows in civilized society, not found in 
savagery. The armies on both sides were fuller 
during the late war because both male and female 
hearts swelled with the same patriotism ; because 
mothers, wives and sisters said to sons, husbands 
and brothers, "Go!" And noble men at Shiloh, Get- 
tysburg, and Chattanooga fought more bravely, fell 
more willingly, and died more cheerfully because of 
well-thumbed pages of encouragement from mothers, 
wives and sweethearts, carefully stowed among the 
soldier' s personal treasures . Female courage , female 
patriotism and female voices were a "war power" in 
that great struggle, powerfully felt and grandly ac- 
knowledged on both sides. But this part of the 
subject must be built up from the lowest bed-rock. 
Let us appeal to physical facts. In what consists 
the war power of nations? All history and philoso- 
phy, since the middle ages, reply : "The war power 
of nations and peoples consists of the purse and the 
sword." That statement being true, what is the 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 103 

percentage of purse and what of sword, in the most 
effective war power? 

Russia is a military nation. There are, say, in 
the entire Russian Empire one hundred millions of 
people. On a war footing the Empire musters three 
millions of soldiers. What is the percentage? The 
swords amount to three per cent, of the people. 
Ninety- seven per cent, of the people are devoted to 
the purse and to recuperative purposes. Let us say 
then, as we safely may, that, when the empire of 
Russia is on an active war footing, with 3,000,000 
soldiers in the field, putting forth her utmost pow- 
er on a hundred battlefields, only about three per 
cent of her population is under arms. Ninety-seven 
per cent, are devoted to arming, clothing, feeding 
encouraging, paying, recuperating, burying, and re- 
placing the soldiers. One-half of the money-earners 
and army-supporters in Russia are females. One- 
half of the incomprehensibly powerful military army 
of the Russian Empire rests on the hearts and bones 
and sinews of women. What is true of Russia is 
true of Germany, of France, of England and of 
America. Behind every body of armed troops in 
the field there must be an adequate supporting pop- 
ulation. This is the rule and history of the modern, 
half barbarous war power. One-half of any national 
population may be reckoned female. Every loom 
and spindle run by women and pale-faced girls is a 
* 'war power." Napoleon beat the armies of conti- 
nental Europe, but was sent into exile by the spin- 



104 FEMALE FII,OSOFY. 

dies and looms of the British Islands, mainly oper- 
ated by female hands. Mr. Allison attributes 
England's wonderful success to the "preserving in- 
dustry of the British people and the extent of the 
commerce which they maintained in every quarter 
of the globe," and to their "admirable system of 
finance which seemed to rise superior to every • 
difficulty." In short, England conquers with the 
purse more than by the sword. The purse is fed 
and sustained by the women and non-combatants 
of the empire. The sword is scarcely one per cent, 
of her inexhaustible war power. The Duke of 
Wellington and the mightiest generals of the conti- 
nent could only hold Napoleon in check. The wo- 
men and girls of Manchester captured him, disarmed 
him and sent him to St. Helena. 

In the United States, over twenty millions of peo- 
ple above the age of ten years are engaged in gain- 
ful occupations. Fully two-thirds of them are non- 
combatants, unfit for military duty in the field, by 
reason of age or sex. Yes every one of them are 
wealth producers and swell the war power of the 
nation. This is indisputable. Shall all non-com- 
batants be deprived of the ballot because, by ul- 
timate logic or chance, in some imaginary exigency, 
it may be necessary to enforce the decisions of the 
ballot by the the use of the bullet; and, as non- 
combatants cannot carry the musket, must they 
therefore, not vote? Where is the much lauded 
gallantry of man, that he would fire bullets and 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 105 

charge bayonets in the face of his mother, his sister, 
his wife, his daughter, or his sweetheart, with not 
another man noble and gallant enough to object? 
Such brutality and lack of gallantry must be sought 
in a State of savagery, or in the restricted suffrage 
countries of Europe. It will never be found in 
countries where the political advancement of man 
depends on the ballot of woman. The question is 
too silly for serious consideration. Will man treat 
woman with more or less respect and gallantry when 
he finds her vote necessary to the gratification of his 
* 'manly aspirations?" Does a lad treat his lass with 
more or less respect and gallantry when, on bended 
knee, he avers that her "consent" is necessary to 
his future happiness? What sort of a figure would 
he cut, musket in hand, marching and shooting with 
the rebellious minority, with his mother, sister and 
lady-love standing unarmed on the other side to be 
shot? Such absurdities belong to the ethics of sav- 
agery, or to the narrow suffrage countries of the 
world. The units of civilzed society are dual, yet 
united; consisting of the strong right arm of man, 
the warm beating heart of woman, and the union of 
intellectual and moral forces. Show me an institu- 
tion of society where a man delights to enter into 
company with his mother, sister, wife and daughter, 
and I will show you an institution which tends to 
civilization. Show me an institution where man 
does not desire to meet his mother, sister, wife and 
and daughter and I will show you an institution that 



106 FEMALE EILOSOFY, 

tends to barbarism. Show me the voting places 
where women are excluded and I will show you places 
repulsive to the best elements of society, and fre- 
quently in need of police guardianship. Show me 
the place where women cast their ballots and I will 
show you carpeted rooms and tables embellished with 
flowers; and not requiring police protection."— Se- 
lected. 

Dr. John A. B. Wilson, in a sermon replying to Dr. 
Parkhurst's attack on womans suffrage, says : 

" The ballots of women would have prevented the 
necessity for the work of the society which Dr. Park- 
hurst's personality has rendered so famous, and the 
present herculean task upon the hands of the Doctor 
could better be accomplished, and perhaps never will 
be done without their aid. 

I know what is said about giving the ballot to vic- 
ious women. I am more afraid of it in the hands of 
the vicious men, who with it control absolutely the 
government of this city. I want to see the ranks of 
the conscience voter strengthened, and how can that 
be so effectually done as by making voters of the 
most moral half of the nation? With a whole line of 
crimes for which women are imprisoned and men go 
free, yet in the prisons and penitentiaries of this 
State there are fourteen men to every woman incar- 
cerated. What moral question is to suffer from it 
when this tremendous moral force is let loose with 
the ballot in hand? 

We are told of women in the home, as her world* 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 107 

H t sphere -why not tell of the mail in the shop, the 
counting-room, the office, as his sphere? The home 
the realm of women? Yes, it is her realm. But it has 
been invaded by man-made laws. 

The Doctor is reported to have said : ' It would be 
a rude shock to our ideas of Mary going to the polls 
to vote,' had there been voting in Nazareth, but not 
half so rude a shock as to think of her fleeing into 
Egypt with her babe in her arms to save its life from 
the vengeful Herod. Rather let us picture her with 
all her womanhood aroused for the defense of her 
offspring hurrying to the polls in Nazareth voting 
to prohibit the slaughter of children. I know she 
would not vote to license the business as men do in 
these days— even preachers. 

Woman's sphere is the home, is it? and it is her 
sphere that is invaded with the accursed creation of 
male suffrage. Then, in the name of everything 
equitable and holy, let us give her the right to pro- 
tect her own. 

But she will become unwomanly t 

I abominate all this paternal attempt to protect the 
sanctity of her own womanhood and make her re- 
spect herself. She needs not the advice of our lips 
or the touch of our hands to teach her that lesson. 
Woman will respect her own womanhood without our 
self -constituted guardianship to compel her to do so. 

I often think I would like to know with what kind 
of women some of these anti-suffrage men have been 
in association all their lives to have convinced them 



108 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

that the whole sex must be put and kept under legal 
disabilities to prevent them from unsexing them- 
selves. Think of it, women— judged by those they 
know the most about, must be kept womanly by 
statutory enactment. They must be prevented from 
becoming manish by a disabling clause in the organic 
law of the land. I have heard of a stingy deacon's 
prayer for his pastor, * Keep him humble and we will 
keep him poor.' And these self -constituted guardi- 
ans of female modesty and delicacy no doubt prey, 
or ought to, to be consistent, ' Keep her weak and we 
will keep her womanly.' And to this class of patent 
self-adjusting, double-action duplex, ball-bearing, 
nickle-plated adjusters of female propriety, belong 
all the men we meet every day on the 'L' and surface 
cars, who sit and read their papers while weary, 
working women swing by the straps. You may take 
your Bible oath, that every one of these is opposed 
to womans suffrage. 

But it is not her sphere to vote? Is it then her 
sphere, for lack of men to do it for her, to go out into 
the professions and in the marts of trade as a bread- 
winner, and daily submit to evil suggestions if her 
salary be small ; and not have even the poor privilege 
of expressing her choice for law-makers whose enact- 
ments will protect her own delicacy, while with feeble 
hand she fights the wolf of hunger back from herself 
and loved ones? Who shall deny her the poor privil- 
edge of winning her own way on equal terms, or the 
right of contending for them? But she does not have 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 109 

equal terms, nor the privilege of asking for them in 
any effective way ; and never will have until she has 
the ballot. 

Young women teachers, after passing college exam- 
inations and securing diplomas, must then submit to 
another examination before they can even substitute. 
Then she must substitute one hundred days under 
daily surveillance of the principal, who must watch 
and report upon her. At the end of that time she 
must again go through another rigid examination 
before she can secure a permanent position. All of 
which the man teacher is saved from, because he is a 
man and has the vote in his hand. 

Now, after all these humiliating conditions, if she 
takes a school it must be for a sum little more than 
half what a man would receive for the same work 
and in the same grade. - . 

A few years ago a bill was before the New York 
Legislature to increase the salaries of women teachers 
to 55 per cent, of men. That Legislature of men — 
men made, voted it down. Could this have been had 
they held ballots in their hands? Yet we are asked, 
'What do women want to vote for anyhow?' What 
for, to be sure. Possibly because they want to become 
men. Who knows? 

To-day women are receiving from tbree to six dol- 
lars in stores for work that men receive from five to 
twelve for doing. 

And it will never be better until political power is 
theirs. There is only one State in this Union with a 






110 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

statute providing that men and women shall receive 
equal pay for equal work done, and that State is 
Wyoming, where for twenty-five years they have had 
equal suffrage. 

But what do women want with the ballot? 

For the same purpose that men want it— to voice 
their conceptions of truth and duty to themselves, 
their families, their country and their God. They 
want it because they need it to protect their own 
rights. Witness the settlement of the question of 
equal pay for equal work by a protective statute in 
one State of this Union only, and that the one where 
equal suffrage obtains. Governor John H. Hoyt, of 
Wyoming, as far back as 1878, stated : 'Attendance 
upon schools is obligatory ; teachers are equally paid, 
male and female alike, for the same service.' Where 
else in this country have we compulsory education 
and equal pay for teachers of both sexes but in this 
State with equal suffrage? 

Governor Hoyt's testimony with regard to the di- 
rect benefit of womans suffrage was also very strong 
in 1872. In his official report he said: "Elsewhere 
objectors persist in calling this honorable statute of 
ours— an experiment. We know it is not; that under 
it we have better laws, better officers, better institu- 
tions, better morals and higher social conditions in 
general, than could otherwise exist— that none of the 
predicted evils, such as loss of native delicacy and 
disturbance of home relations, have followed in its 
train ; that the great body of our women, and the 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. Ill 

best of them, have accepted the elective franchise as 
a preoious boone and exercise it as a patriotic duty 
— in a word, that after twelve years of happy exper- 
ience, woman's suffrage is so thoroughly rooted and 
established in the hearts of the people that, among 
them all, no voice is ever uplifted to protest against 
or in question of it.' 

Governor Francis E. Warren said, in 1885: "I 
have seen much of the workings of woman suffrage. 
I have yet to hear of the first case of domestic dis- 
cord growing therefrom. Our women nearly all vote. 
As the majority of women are good the result is good 
— not evil." In the same year he reported to the 
Secretary of the Interior, 'The men are as favorable 
to woman suffrage as the women are. Wyoming ap- 
preciates, believes in, and endorses woman suffrage.' 
In his official report next year, he said: "Woman 
suffrage continues as popular as at first. The women 
nearly all vote, and neither party objects." And in 
1889 he reported: "No one will deny that woman's 
influence has always been on the side of the Govern- 
ment. The people favor the continuance.' 

This official evidence as to the beneficial effects of 
woman suffrage is supported by the universal testi- 
mony of residents and the personal experience of 
visitors. And there are (28) other States where lim- 
ited suffrage for women obtains, with like testimony 
of similar results as in Wyoming. Massachusetts, 
to-day, has the Bible in the public schools of Boston 
by the power of woman suffrage alone. To the ex- 



112 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

tent of her permission woman alwavs goes where she 
is wanted in defense of truth and virtue. 

Two-thirds of the members of the Christian 
Church in this State are women. And while they, 
by many thousands, form the major part of the pop- 
ulation, and while there is a class of crime for which 
they are imprisoned, for which the men, who are a 
thousand-fold more guilty, have immunity, yet, in 
this State of New York, the jails and penitentiaries 
have fourteen times as many men as women incar- 
cerated. 

And this statement of their higher moral status 
warrants the inference that a free government can 
never come to its best from the making of whose 
laws the best element of society is excluded." 

THEY ARE REPRESENTED. 



I N four out of five cases where men represent wives, 
daughters, mothers and sisters, they misrepresent 
them. They never consider their constituents. They 
would do almost anything for the dollars and drinks. 
No man or set of men would be willing to send them 
to a caucus or convention as their representatives. 
No candidate would trust his interests with them. 
They would betray for less than Judas received. The 
very people who say the women are already repre- 
sented would never think of trusting their affairs to 
the same men. How many of the masses of men 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 113 

who are representatives of their wives, daughters, 
sisters and mothers would be in any degree influenced 
by suggestions made by these feminine friends? A 
very small proportion. Their suggestion would not 
amount to any more than their names on a petition 
or protest to our Councils, our Courts or our Con- 
gresses, in most cases. Women's petititions are 
generally cautiously referred to a fool committee of 
fools, or carefully laid on the floor of the committee 
room to be a target at which to spit tobacco juice. 
And the committeeman who can hit the mark of tenest' 
is regarded as having done the most to kill the 
petition. 

Tobacco juice will either kill a thing or make it »o 
sick that it would feel better if it were dead and could 
not feel at all. If Legislatures, Judges and Councils 
pay no attention to women's requests, how can we 
expect brutish men to do so. Is it any wonder 
women do not know anything about politics? What 
good would it do if they knew everything about pol- 
itics? 

Carter Harrison threw away the long petition of 
thousands of names asking for the closing up of the 
bad, illegal saloons of -Chicago because most of them 
were women? They were not voters — that was all. 
A woman's name is as good as a man's on a petition 
in Arkansas and some counties in Pennsylvania. 
Why should it not be so everywhere? She is affected 
in the same way as man by good or evil. She ought 
to be able to tell whether a thing injures her or causes 



114 FEMAtE FltOSOFY. 

her to suffer or not. But then " She's nothing but a 

10 

woman," and that covers a multitude of men's sins. * 

When the women began to look into how they were 
represented, they found they had no more rights than 
animals or slaves owned by their masters. No right 
to their children ; could neither buy nor sell, make a 
will nor own property, had to obey all the laws men 
were subject to, or be punished as if they were men. 
The "age of protection for girls" runs as low as seven 
years in several States. These are some of the af- 
fairs that exist under laws made by the women's 
representatives — or rather by their misrqyresenta- 
tives. No one can satisfactorily represent women 
but women. " 

Men specially represent material interests. Wo- 
men will specially represent the interests of the home. 

James Otis said: "No such phrase as * virtuous 
representation' is known in law or constitution. It 
is altogether a subtlety and illusion, wholly un- 
founded and absurd." 

" If they are represented, when was the choice 
made? Nobody pretends that they have ever been 
consulted. It is a mere assumption to the effect 
that the interest and affection of men will lead them 
to just and wise legislation for women as well as for 
themselves. But this is merely the old appeal for the 
political power of a class. It is just what the British 
Parliament said to the Colonies a hundred years ago, 
'We are all under the same government,' they said; 
'our interests are identical. We are all Britons \ 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 115 

Britain rules the wave ; God save the King ! and down 
with sedition and Sons of Liberty!' The Colonies 
chafed and indignantly protested, because the as- 
sumption that therefore fair laws were made was 
not true ; because they were discovering for them- 
selves what every nation has discovered, that there is 
no class of citizens, and no single citizen, who can 
safely be entrusted with the permanent and exclusive 
possession of political power. ' There is no instance 
on record,' says Buckle, in his history of civilization 
in England, 'of any class possessing power without 
abusing it.' It is as true of men as a class as of an 
hereditary nobility, or of a class of property-holders. 
Men are not wise enough, nor generous enough, nor 
pure enough, to legislate fairly for women. The 
laws of the most civilized nations depress and de- 
grade women. The legislation is in favor of the leg- 
islating class." — Selected. 

Wives, mothers, sisters, maids and widows have 
interests peculiar and special to themselves. And 
how can any man or any set of men, however good 
and generous, know what is good for all these? How 
can they know as well as the women themselves what 
women need for their best government and happiness? 
It is now time for men to say : ' Let us be generous 
to our sisters. Let those who are educated vote if 
they choose.' 

"It is true that women can secure the repeal of 
bad laws by indirect influence. It is also true that 
people can get from New York to San Fjancisco by 



116 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

going around Cape Horn. But if women were for- 
" bidden to travel by rail across the continent, and if 
they complained of the injustice, it would be no 
answer to tell them that there were many authentic 
instances of women who had reached San Francisco 
safely by way of the Cape. The last persons who 
would be likely to use this argument would be the old 
sea-captains who had made many voyages around 
Cape Horn. Thus we find that the men and women 
who have worked longest and hardest to secure the 
present improved laws for women in regard to pro- 
perty, the professions, etc., would be the least to say 
that indirect influeuce is as good as a vote-" — Se- 
lected. 

Besides this : "Why does not this argument in re- 
spect to woman's influence hold just as good in 
everything else as in public affairs? Why do you 
not say, 'A woman ought not to be a school-teacher; 
if she wishes to teach the race, let her influence her 
father and brothers and husband, and act through 
them? ' Why not say, 'A woman ought not to be an 
artist and daub her fingers with paints ; let her in- 
fluence her father and brothers and husband to 
paint?' or, 'A woman ought not to waste her strength 
in writing ; let her influence her father and brothers 
and husband to write? 4 Why do you not say, in short, 
'Woman is a mere silent, inferior, reserved force, and 
man is the universal engine to be set in operation by 
her.' 

There is, undoubtedly, such a thing as indirect 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 117 

influence, as general influence; but I have no- 
ticed that men who wish things to remain as they 
are, are in favor always of general influences, in dis- 
tinction from directly applied forces. It is open, 
direct, applied force, that abates evil or promotes 
good. 

Nobody makes out a bank account under the gen- 
eral influence of commerce. Nobody farms on this 
principle. The general influence of husbandry never 
drained a swamp. It is the theory of cultivation 
applied that brings harvests. The general progress 
of health never cleaned a street ; it is sanitary ideas 
applied that do this work. General influences are 
nothing but the sum of particular influences. If 
these men who propose leaving evils to be corrected 
by general influences were to talk to the clouds, they 
would say, 'Oh, never rain! Leave all things to the 
general influence of diffused moisture.' " — Selected. 

"It is also to be noted that a good law, once ob- 
tained, does not always 'stay put.' Mr. Hale boasts, 
for instance, that in New York fathers and mothers 
are equal guardians of their children. But the vicis- 
situdes of the law of equal guardianship in New York 
furnish a striking instance of the insecure tenure by 
which the rights of a disfranchised class are held. 

New York women began to agitate for equal rights 
in 1848. It was not till 1860 that a law making 
fathers and mothers equal guardians of their children 
was secured. Two years later the father was again 
made the sole guardian, with only a restrictive 



118 FEMALE FTLOSOFY. 

clause forbidding him to part with the custody and 
guardianship of a child without the mother's consent. 
Nine years later, even this restriction was removed, 
and from 1871 to 1893 the New York law read : 

' Every father, whether of full age or a minor, of a 
child likely to be born, or of any living child under 
the age of twenty-one years and unmarried, may, by 
his deed or last will, duly executed, dispose of the 
custody and tuition of such child during its minority, 
or for any less time, to any person or persons in pos- 
session or remainder.' 

Under this law, some flagrant cases occurred in 
which fathers willed away their unborn children 
from the mother to a stranger." — Selected. 

In an address by Mary T. Lathrap of Mich- 
igan, she says : "I do not know what you may think 
of the woman's crusade, but let me say, as a woman 
who stood inside it, that the women of this nation 
never laid such a tribute at the feet of its woman- 
hood. If you want to know what a boy is worth, go 
ask his mother. By the time she goes into the jaws 
of death to give him birth, and then puts into him 
her days of love and nights of care, and he stands 
before her strong and clean and tall at 21, she can tell 
you what he is worth, from the crown of his head to 
the soles of his feet, and when the legalized dram- 
shop takes hold of him and tears him down, fiber by 
fiber, and puts oaths on the lips she used to kiss, and 
crushes out his mother's hopes, it is no wonder she 
makes outcry. 



J 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 119 

* 'If you want to know what a home is worth, go and 
ask a loving woman who has kept herself as pure as 
lilies for her marriage day, when, with a great shine 
in her eyes, she puts herself over into the hands of 
one man, for better or for worse, for richer or for 
poorer, until life's end. And when the dramshop, 
with its fearful curse, crosses the threshold of the 
home they built together and takes down her strong 
tower of hope, stone by stone, and degrades the 
father of her children, it is no wonder woman makes 
outcry. 

"What was the woman's crusade? It was along 
smothered sob breaking into a cry; it was a 
midnight prayer coming abroad at noonday. You 
men sometimes say to us, as we stand in places like 
this, * Home' is your kingdom.' We do not dispute 
it ; we know it better than you know it, but it was 
our kingdom that was outraged. You say to us, 
standing ballotless and defenseless before this vam- 
pire of our civilization, 'you do not need the ballot; 
we defend you by love and by law.' Do you, when 
for 85 years, by well denned license legislation, moth- 
erhood has been uncrowned and her children slain 
by law, and you have made no protest against it? 
you have prayed about it in prayer-meeting, but 
when it comes to the sweep of empire in the ballot 
box and in political organizations you have made no 
protest. 

^ "Oh men, I do not believe a civilization is worth 
much that cannot protect its women and its babies ! 



120 FEMALE FILOSOKY. 



THE TAXATION TYRANNY. 

BY GEN.. E. ESTABROOK, 

TUNE—" The Red, White and Blue, ' ' 



w, 



- o tax one who is not represented 
Is tyranny — tell if you can 
Why woman should not have the ballot? 
She's taxed, just the same as a man. 
King George, you remember, denied us 
The ballot, but sent us the tea, 
And we, without asking a question, 
Just tumbled it into the sea. 

Chorus :-Then to justice let's ever be true, 
To each citizen render his due, 
Equal rights and Protection forever 
To all 'neath the Red, White and Blue. 

That man shall not rule another 
Unless by that other's consent, 
Is the principle deep underlying 
The framework of this government. 
So, as woman is punished for breaking 
The laws which she cannot gainsay, 
Let us give her a voice in the making, 
Or ask her no more to obey. 



FEMALE KILOSOFY. 121 

And grand as you are, and strong as you are, and 
true as you are, you will never be able to protect 
your women and your children and the dramshop 
at the same time. Oh, in shame, in very shame, 
either get up and strike down this enemy of the home, 
and of wifehood, and of childhood, or else put the 
ballot into the hands of your women for their own 
protection." 

BAD WOMEN ONLY WILL VOTE. 



BAD women are fewer than bad men, and yet no 
one ever said that about bad men. Women would 
not likely stand around the polls all day, 
shivering, waiting for some one to give them a dol- 
lar or a drink for their vote. Many men do that at 
every election. P.robably women would not know 
enough to vote that way. Do the bad men not vote? 
If the franchise were taken from the bad men, and 
men who do not know enough t to vote, the tally sheet 
would not be very long. Under our present system 
of the franchise one saloon has more power in poli- 
tics and the government of our country than ten 
churches. Give woman her rights that she has been 
deprived of and there will be three good women 
voting to every good man — at least to every Christian 
man. Eleven men on the average are in our prisons 
to every woman. So that will give about thirty- 
three chances to have a good woman at the polls to 
every chance for a good man. With three times as 



122 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

many Christian women as men it is not probable that 
bad women will do all the voting. 

The Governor of Wyoming, John E. Osborne, says : 
" I agree with the resolutions passed by the House 
of Eepresentatives of the Legislature of Wyoming,* 
advising the Legislature of New York and other 
States to enfranchise their women. Our experience 
in the State for nearly twenty-five years is highly 
satisfactory in every way. Not one of the objections 
made in the East has proved true, and great good 
has been done in many directions by the possession 
of the suffrage by our women. I cordially hope that 
New York and other States will soon follow our ex- 
ample." 

4 'I take pleasure in saying, that in my judgment, 
the action of our people in giving to women muninci- 
pal suffrage has a good influence upon the politics of 
our State. The vote of the women has increased at 
each election, and it may be truthfully said that it 
is a factor in securing purer and better municipal 
government. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Lyman U. Humphrey, 

Governor of Kansas." 

The advocates of woman suffrage have often pub- 
licly challenged its opponents to find two persons in 
all Wyoming who will assert over their own names 
and addresses that woman suffrage there has had any 
bad results. The opponents have failed to respond. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 123 

A New York woman tells the following incident : 
" I was at a woman suffrage parlor meeting,'' she 
said, " and I saw one of the most charming society 
women in the town among the guests. She always 
seemed to me as if she ought to be kept in a glass 
case, she was so exquisite and refined. After the 
meeting was over, I said to her, ' How do you hap- 
pen to be here?' 'Well,' she said, 'I'll tell you. Last 
fall I talked to fifteen men of my acquaintance, urg- 
ing them to stay in town to vote at the election. Not 
one of them did, and I came to the conclusion that if 
the respectable men wouldn't vote, the respectable 
women ought to.' " 

If the men take care of the bad men, the other sex 
will not have half as big a job t® take care of the 
bad women. If nobody but good men voted women 
would not feel so much the necessity of having the 
ballot. It is the ballot of bad men that we want to 
counteract by the ballot of the good women. Here 
is a story that illustrates our position. A boy once 
complained that he never was served with as many 
pancakes as he wanted. His mother and sisters de- 
termined to silence his complaint, and so prepared an 
extra supply. Again and again and again they 
helped him. When he hesitated his sister said per- 
suasively, as she held out four more on the fork : 
"Don't you want some more?" With a look of agony 
on his face and his hands on his stomach he replied, 
"Don't want what I've got." Let us make an edu- 
cational or property basis or both for the franchise, 



124 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

and we will get rid of what we've got that we don't 
want, and what otherwise we would get that we 
would not w r ant. 

The Danville News says: "There is but one 
drunken woman to every thousand men, and one 
criminal woman to twelve criminal men. And yet 
they tell us that woman isn't to be trusted with the 
ballot," 

The Christian Statesman says: "The Parkhurst 
crusade shows that impurity is very closely related 
to the saloons, and is directly promoted by them. 
The matron of the Florence Night Mission, of New 
York, being asked how the evil could be reduced, re- 
plied : * ' Honest men might be put in power who 
would enforce the laws. That would decrease the 
evil. The saloons might be regulated or driven out. 
One-half of the social evil is due to drink. Why, 
the other night I asked some- of the girls here what 
use they would make of the ballot if they w T ere per- 
mitted to vote. And the answer was "Close the sa- 
loons." They are all drunkards. They say they 
have to be half drunk to get the "cheek" necessary 
for their horrible trade. There is something of the 
woman in all of them, which they have to deaden 
with drink or drugs." ' 

Mrs. Elizabeth B. Grannis says : " From my per- 
sonal experience with the ' common woman ' and the 
common man, I am convinced that the ' common 
woman's' conscience is superior to that of the com- 
mon man's, and she would therefore exercise her 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 125 

moral sense in a majority of cases in casting her bal- 
lot. A wicked woman, or the women that Dr. Ry- 
lance refers to as 'those whom Dr. Parkhurst is 
hunting,' is no better than the same grade of man, 
but not one step lower, and I believe not nearly so 
dangerous as the murderers, thieves and the great 
variety of reckless men who are given over to every 
phase of evil. ' The women who are hunted by Dr. 
Parkhurst' are quite as safe and well qualified to 
cast a ballot as their male partners in crime. 
Women would certainly not be more likely to aid 
in the election of ' low, ignorant men ' than those 
who have already put them in power. This is a false 
accusation, and nothing more unjust against women 
could be assumed. A very large majority of women 
have a far keener sense of the duty of citizenship 
than the rank and file of reckless men. Dr. Ry- 
lance is at least very presumptuous in declaring 
that ' woman has to reach perfection at a bound.' 
He cannot prove his assertion. Women who have 
aimed to reach perfection have sought it by patient 
plodding, prayer and self-sacrifice, trusting in God's 
help to quite as large an extent as men. Dr. Ry- 
lance's experience differs somewhat from that of 
many other pastors, who will testify that women 
are as patient and self -denying while seeking to grat- 
ify a noble or ignoble ambition as the average man. 
Men voters have been beating the air for genera- 
tions, and if they have accomplished no more than 
is apparent, and as Dr. Rylance acknowledges, how 



126 FEMALE PII.OSOFY. 

does he know that we should have 'confusion con- 
founded' by bringing in the better element and the 
greater half of the people to aid in settling these 
perplexing questions to which he alludes ? It is 
only in the name of justice to the people we ask 
for suffrage." 

The Colorado Legislature, at its extra session, 
provided for a house-to-house registration of women 
who wished to vote. The Denver Republican gives 
the following interesting facts about the registering 
in Denver : "The line is very clearly drawn. It is 
parallel with the line of culture and intelligence. In 
the central Capitol Hill precincts, in the better part 
of Highlands, and in the best other residence dis- 
tricts of the city, the proportion of ladies who are 
registering is very large. Among the middle classes 
the proportion is good— better, in fact, than any 
other. Below these classes it grows less and less, 
till the bottoms are reached, with their miseries and 
dirt. Here women know nothing of registration, 
and only a meagre percentage are induced by per- 
suasive canvassers to become voters. The negro 
women, as a class, will have nothing to do with reg- 
istration. The male population in black does not 
encourage it. Amoijg the Italians the same tend- 
ency is manifest— very few of them are registered. 
And, finally, the shadow women, the women of Mar- 
ket street and of the blocks on Lawrence and Lari- 
mer, refused to give their names for registration. . 
. . From an estimated ninety per cent, in the cen- 



, 



tfEMAtE FltOSOFY. 127 

tral district, the proportion decreased to probably 
seventy per cent, in certain places around the edges. 
There are two or three little negro settlements in 
this fringe. Less than half a dozen colored women 
registered in all these places; they knew nothing 
about it, and would not be convinced. On the other 
hand, there was an increase in the percentage among 
the middle classes, so called, where intelligent faces 
greeted the canvassers. The line is very clearly 
drawn parallel with that dreadful line of ignorance. 
The brighter the faces, the greater the proportion of 
registrations." 

In Boston, for the past fifteen years, the school 
vote of women has been largest in the good wards of 
the city, and smallest in the ignorant and degraded 
wards. In the twenty-one other States where women 
have school suffrage ? the women who have voted have 
been, almost without exception, of the intelligent 
and respectable class. In Kansas, where women 
have had municipal suffrage since 1887, and in Wy- 
oming, where they had full suffrage since 1869, this 
fear, that the bad and ignorant women would be 
found more willing to vote than the good and intel- 
ligent, has nowhere been realized. 

It is sometimes urged that if political equality be 
given women, the good women who avail themselves 
of it will be outnumbered by the bad. This is sim- 
ple conjecture. If good women do not rally when 
they can do good, it will be something new under the 
sun, and if bad women wish to vote, it is surely as 



128 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

proper for them as forbad men. But the facts show 
that it has not worked in that way. Wretched, fall- 
en women are not much found where respectable 
women go. 

It is said, by careful observers in Kansas and Wy- 
oming, that women of degraded life do not go to the 
polls, for the very good reason that good women be- 
ing there in vast majority, candidates for election 
dare not bring those of another sort, knowing that 
should they do so, they would be mercilessly boy- 
cotted by the massing against them of reputable 
women's votes. The registration of the women in 
Chicago, Boston, Denver and other places proves the 
fallacy of the statement that "Bad women only will 
vote." The registration is largest in the best wards, 
and smallest in the ignorant and degraded parts of 
the cities. The five wards of North Chicago foot 
up less than either 12th or 34th. Evidently the 
strength of woman suffrage is in the American 
wards. The best women are readier to vote than the 
worst every time. The latter are not generally ready 
at all. 

The women who have asked the franchise repre- 
sent the highest culture, virtue and intelligence of 
these United States. They are the women^ of the 
universities, the schools, and the professions. The 
very great majority of them are the mothers of fam- 
ilies, devoted and faithful wives, who, in their efforts 
to secure their political rights, have the hearty sup- 
port and aid of their husbands. The great number 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 129 

of women who went to the places of registration ac- 
companied by their husbands proves the truth of 
this. They are not the vicious, the silly, the irre- 
sponsible. There has never been an advocate of 
equal suffrage upon the platform who was a woman 
of notorious character ; there have been none who 
did not possess more than average ability. 

A report from the first women's voting in Colo- 
rado says : * 'Almost everywhere the elections turned 
on local issues, chiefly anti-gambling, local option 
and high license, and, as a rule, the women favored 
the reform ticket, and voted solidly for it. The only 
disturbance reported was an accidental dog-fight, 
which happened inside a voting place in Highlands. 
The women were made heartily welcome, and it is 
said that one judge of election, an old bachelor, de- 
voted the day to taking care of the babies while the 
mothers voted. The judges were greatly surprised 
to find that the new voters needed no instruction, 
and voted in half the time usually taken by men." 

"As fuller returns from the spring elections come 
in, they demonstrate anew the fallacy of the idea 
that 'the ignorant women will be the first to rush to 
the polls.' In the Mexican counties 'about eighty 
per cent, of the American women voted,' but 'almost 
no Mexican women appeared at the polls, as their 
husbands objected.' In the cities, the three classes 
of women who almost universally stayed away from 
the ballot-box were the very ignorant, the ultra 
fashionable, and the demi-monde. Outside of these 

9 



130 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

classes, the vote of women was very large. Of those 
registered, 'from eighty to ninety per cent, voted.' 
As in Wyoming and Kansas, 'The women voted for 
the candidates of the best character.' They were 
everywhere treated with courtesy, and the elections 
were 'the most orderly ever known in Colorado.' 
So say the reports. An ounce of experiment is 
worth a ton of theory." 



DIVIDING A HOUSE. 



TALK about dividing houses ! Could houses be 
divided more than at present. There is not 
much now that is common to husband and wife. 
The children belong to him. He only allows her the 
privilege of caring for them. The property all be- 
longs to him. The pocket-book is his. The politics 
are his, too, and she has nothing left entirely to her- 
self but religion, and some men have even taken a 
little of that. But they generally do so at the ex- 
pense of some of the other things they might have 
had more of if they had left the religion to their 
wives. Now, would it not be a good plan to divide 
up all these things and hold them all in common? If 
the man finds that civil suffrage and church suffrage 
would be too much for him, let him take only half of 
each, and his wife the other half. They should be 

family affairs. She is one half of the family, and 
that the better half. Is it right for women to raise 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 131 

the children for men to ruin with rum? But they 
are compelled to do it under the existing laws, and 
they dare not, cannot lift up their voice against it. 
They choose their own religion and often connect 
themselves with other churches than their fathers 
and husbands. There has always been more conten- 
tion over religion than over politics, yet frequently a 
woman is a communicant of one church and her hus- 
band of another or none, or a non-church-goer. But 
this does not disrupt many families. They "agree 
to disagree." 

Not one man in a thousand would object to wo- 
man suffrage if he thought he could control the 
vote of the whole family. Everybody knows this, 
and yet they say the women would vote the same way 
as their husband's do. If the men really thought so, 
there would be no opposition to their voting. It is 
the way men think women would vote that they ob- 
ject to, more than to the principles.. When the great 
Methodist church in '92 decided by over 80,000 of 
a majority that women should sit in the Conference 
with men, the Bishop (and would-be-Bishops) de- 
cided to the contrary. Dr. Buckley gave as a reason 
for debarring them from the Conference, "Whenever 
you put a woman into the Conference you put a man 
out." (N. B. — He did not say : For every bite a wo- 
man took some man must do without a bite. His 
reasoning is almost as wise as the carpenter who 
said, if the sill had been too short he could have 
spliced it, but when it was too long he did not know 



132 FEMALE FILOSOEY. 

how to fix it. If Dr. Buckley's Conference should be 
too short could he not call in the carpenter and have 
him splice it? 

The Lincoln (Kans.) Beacon says : " Not a home 
in Kansas has been broken up and probably not an 
iota of domestic discard has ever resulted from mu- 
nicipal suffrage for women during the past seven 
years." 

The women of Wyoming have been voting on an 
equality with men since 1869. From 1870 to 1890 
divorces increased in the United States at large three 
times as fast as the population. In the Western 
States, omitting Wyoming, they increased four 
times as fast as the population. In Wyoming they 
increased only one-half as fast as the population. In 
other words, divorces increased six times as fast else- 
where in the United States as in Wyoming from 
1870 to 1890 ; and during the same time, in the aver- 
age other western States eight times as fast as in 
^Wyoming; and again "an ounce of experiment is 
worth tons of theory." 



WOMEN WILL VOTE THE SAME AS THEIR 

HUSBANDS. 

WHAT if they do? If the husbands vote right 
it will be all the better. And she probably 
will vote the same as he does. But the 
women have shown that they have more independence 



FEMAtE FILOSOKY. 133 

in voting than men. She votes more for the man 
and less for his party, his barrel of beer and barrel 
of money, which generally carry the elections at 
present where women are excluded from the polls. 

Many more women bring their husbands into their 
church than go with their husbands to their church. 
And the same thing will be true in politics when 
they are allowed to vote. Men know this, and that is 
the reason they object to their having the ballot. 
Not a man would object if he thought he could con- 
trol the family ballot. Here are some samples of 
how women will come to vote the same as their hus- 
bands, given by Vandelia Varnum in the "Corner 
Stone" : 

'We take all the Prohibition papers,' said one 
woman, * and they always lay at the head of the 
lounge. When my husband con^s home tired, he lies 
there and picks up the first paper he finds, and I see 
to it that he always finds the kind he needs. Little 
by little the scales fall off his eyes, and to-day he is 
as strong a Prohibitionist as 1.' 

'He likes to have me read to him,' said another, 
'and so I read him to sleep every night. Sometimes 
it seems as though he didn't take much of it in, but 
I kept at it, and in two years he voted the staight 
ticket.' 

'I suppose your husband is as strong in the faith 
as you?' was asked a third. 'Not quite yet, but he 
will be soon. I must tell you my experience. Per- 
haps you know I have been married three times. My 



134 FEMALE FILOSOI^Y. 

first husband was an old- time Democrat. It was 
pretty hard for him to turn, but he did at last and 
became a very earnest Prohibitionist. My second 
husband was a Democrat, too, but he became so tired 
of his old party that during the last years he al- 
ways voted for me, he said, and that was straight 
Prohibition. My present husband is or was a Re- 
publican. We have been taking several Republican 
papers and just as many Prohibition papers. Every 
night we read together, I doing most of it. I'll read 
the New York Tribune awhile and then say, 'Now 
let's take a bit of The Corner Stone, and so he, too, 
is almost there.' 

'Say, marry some more men, will you?' 
'Well, I'm awfully ashamed to think I've married 
so many times, but I don't know but that is my mis- 
sion. Some can preach it from the platform and I 

can convert husbands.' And we all drowned the 

words in a laugh. 

'But how do you get around this matter during 
courtship?' 

'Oh it never comes up— hasn't a thing to do 
with it.' 

'Maybe not, but I should think, sometimes, that 
it would loom up like a 

' There f s where you show your inexperience.' 
And the listening company all agreed with her. ' 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 135 

IT WOULD DRIVE MEN FROM THE POLLS. 




O let them go, and we will sing the Doxology. 
The Elder Brother, as he stood on the outside, 
disgruntled because his brother returned, was 
the worse of the two. What a sulky disposition! 
Did you ever see the selfishness of the child that 
would never divide anything with a companion? 
What kind of a brute does it most remind you of? 
Some men, whose brains are equal to their UNselfish- 
ness, are too boorish and brutal and bearish to be fit 
to have companions. Was woman made out of the 
sole of a man's foot that she must be beneath him? 
Or was she taken from a man's side that she might 
stand up beside him? Was she not taken from near- 
est his heart so that she would be the dearest thing 
to him? About how many men who regard a wife 
as the dearest thing would quit voting because the 
wife wanted to go along to the polls? 

The men who have the highest regard for woman 
are in favor of woman suffrage. It is only those 
men who regard women as their inferiors that are 
opposed to their equality. Can it be possible that 
so many of them stay away from the churches be- 
cause their wives go? Will they stay out of Heaven 
for the same reason? If there be no marriages in 
Heaven, may it not be because the men will be too 
scarce? 



136 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 



LET THEM VOTE ONCE. 



V' jTLMOST any man would be willing to let his 
I | wife and daughters vote on the whisky ques- 
* tion. The old fable of the mice and the cat 
is very applicable here. The mice met and decided 
to put a bell on the cat so that they could hear her 
coming. But when the cat was to be belled not a 
mouse would venture to do it. The men admit that 
the liquor traffic deserves to be put to death, but 
when the first stone is to be cast they depart, from 
the eldest unto the last, and leave it alone. The 
very same men would be willing to let their women 
cast the stones and kill it, provided they would not 
vote any more until they would get another job on 
their hands that they were afraid of. They would 
be willing to use their wives and daughters as the 
cat's paw to pull all the chestnuts out of the fire 
that they were afraid to pull out. Brave men! 
They need women to protect them. 

Can it be possible that Eev. Anna Shaw's theory 
of woman being taken out of man's backbone (in- 
stead of out of his rib) is true? If not, what has 
so weakened his backbone? 

The Turkish women have to wash their husband's 
feet with scented water, but there are men in this 
country that would allow their women to do the 
same— anything they would not dare or stoop to do 
themselves. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 137 

MOTHERS CARE FOR THE YOUNG. 



y^ T" LITTLE boy asked his mother which charac- 
I JLter in "Pilgrim's Progress" she liked best. 
•^ She could not tell until she thought about it a 
little. He replied, "I like Christiana best." "Why?" 
she asked. "Because she took the children along," 
said he. 

A heathen woman brought a little child to 
the missionary and besought her to keep it. When 
asked why she wanted her to keep it, the woman 
said: "Because your God is the only God that cares 
for children." But is it not also true that the mis- 
sionary's Devil is the only Devil that cares for chil- 
dren? Is it not also true that the missionary's Devil 
gets many of the missionary's people's children be- 
cause the men will not allow the mothers to protect 
them? If a mother's influence is so great that she 
can control the nation through the children, she 
ought to have more influence on the "children of a 
larger growth." Who needs to be afraid of the 
mothers when their influence is so great and so 
good? Is not much of a good thing better than lit- 
tle of it? 

An educated Hindoo once said that his people did 
not fear missionary schools, or missionary books, or 
missionary teachers. "But we dread," said he, 
"your women, and we dread your doctors; for your 
doctors are winning our hearts, and your women are 
winning our homes." 



138 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 



BETTER CAUCUSES, BETTER CANDIDATES, 
AND BETTER CONDUCT OF OFFICERS. 

WHEN a caucus is held under the present con- 
dition of things, the whisky interests control 
the convention, and do as they please. They 
elect their convention officers, they appoint the com- 
mittees, and they draft platforms, draw up resolu- 
tions, demand their own candidates, and domineer 
the convention to their nomination or election. So 
that the good people who ought to go to the nomina- 
tions and elections despair of any good they may do, 
and if they do go, they are used only as so much 
steam to run the machinery to grind out the grist 
turned into the hopper by the saloou interests. A 
certain man, either a whisky-interested man or a 
money king is turned into the hopper because of the 
* 'fire-water" and steam they can furnish to run the 
election machinery. Barabbas is still in demand by 
the caucus, and, alas, too often released unto them 
But now he is wanted for mayor, chief of police, 
councilman, constable, or to be sent to Congress. 

But in a campaign where women's votes would be 
counted, candidates would have to have clean char- 
acters. The principal question in the convention 
would not be, as now, "Can the candidate furnish 
enough money or whisky to carry the election?" but 
it would be, "Will the candidate command the re- 
spect and receive the support of the women?" Who 



m_^_ 



FEMALE EILOSOEY. 139 

would dare to run. for an office with public sentiment 
against him voiced by women? Even the worst 
classes of women would not support bad men for 
offices. Women never get so low as to be void of ad- 
miration for the good, the noble and the true, and to 
admire the bad, the ignoble and the false. If we 
want better government we must secure it through 
the ballot. And nothing will hasten it so fast as the 
power and presence of the women at the polls. 

Information from Auckland, New Zealand, says: 
"The first elections under the female suffrage law 
resulted in favor of the Government. The women 
voted in large numbers, giving their support mainly 
to the candidates who professed Christianity and fa- 
vored temperance, and every candidate whose morals 
were of a dubious standard were unmercifully cut." 

In Glasgow, Scotland, last year, woman's vote gave 
five total abstinence candidates to the Municipal 
Council, and this year three out of four. 

A Denver dispatch says that ever since Colorado 
gave women the right of suffrage the Women's Chris- 
tian Temperance Association has been actively en- 
gaged in getting their members and sympathizers to 
register, for the purpose of fighting the liquor law, 
and eventually making Colorado a Prohibitory State. 

Another paper from Denver says: "The woman 
with her little vote is disturbing the politician's lit- 
tle game. He has a new element to deal with, and 
it will be a long day before he will know what to ex- 
pect from it." 



140 FEMALE tflLOSOFY. 

The "Prohibitionist," of New Zealand, asserts 
that by the first exercise of woman suffrage in that 
country, the question of Prohibition has been thrust 
into the very forefront of burning questions for the 
new Parliament to act upon, and the lower house has 
banished all intoxicating drinks from the bar of the 
Chamber. And if ever a reformation was needed, it 
is in our present political plans and practices." 

The following little dialogue is suggestive : One 
angel met another on the jasper street, taking earth- 
ly observations. 

"What are you looking at?" 

"Men," said the other. 

"And what do you see?" 

"I see wise men living under laws made by fools 
and knaves, and submitting of their own free wills." 

"Strange!" said the other. "And how do they 
justify it?" 

"They say it's all wrong." 

"And why do they submit?" 

"That I cannot tell." 

"And what do they call such a strange anomally?" 

"Politics." — Kate Field's Washington. 

Emma Hardman, in the Southern California 
"White Ribbon," says: 

"I once heard a minister tell how he was converted 
to woman suffrage. He went to the polls, and found 
a filthy polling- place, filled with half -drunken, foul- 
mouthed men, the air thick with tobacco smoke and 
heavy with curses. One fight after another made 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 141 

the day hideous. The next year he went again. The 
women had been there before him. The place was 
clean. Flowers stood in vases here and there. In 
one corner were tables covered with white cloths, and 
women, good women, gave out coffee and cakes to 
the voters. 'I staid all day,' said he, 'and not a 
man swore, or smoked, or fought. The place was 
clean in the morning and clean at night, and I said : 
If women can do this in one day, what could they 
do in a year, in a lifetime? This is what we need, 
the women to help us in political matters ; and, God 
helping me, I'll vote for it from this day on.' And 
he did." 

Every Governor of Wyoming, for more than 
twenty years, has testified to the good results of wo- 
man suffrage, and many of the judges and highest 
officials have done the same. In fact, all testimony 
goes to prove that wherever women have had the 
ballot, they have used it in the interests of the home, 
against the saloons, the gambling houses, and the 
haunts of infamy. 

"The two most strongly marked instincts of wo- 
man," forcibly says Miss Willard, "are those of 
protection for herself and little ones, and of loyalty 
and love for her husband and her son . On the other 
hand, the two strongest instincts that defend the 
liquor traffic and the drink habit, are avarice in the 
dealer and appetite in the drinker. 

"It has been said that civilization has nothing 
with which to offset these two tremendous forces. 



142 FEMALE KILOSOFY. 

But may it not be found in the home, through 
the reserve power, not yet called into government 
on a larger scale, woman's instinct of protection and 
love will prove a sufficient offset, and will outvote 
both at the polls." 

The State would surely be benefited by entrusting 
the ballot to that class of citizens who are most 
numerous in colleges and prayer meetings, and least 
numerous in the saloons. 

Notice what the whisky advocate, "Wine and 
Spirit Gazette," says about it: 

"The clamor for female suffrage, of which we hear 
so much at present, is merely a prohibition move- 
ment in disguise." 

Dr. Wilbur Crafts, in the "Christian Statesman," 
under "Suffrage Reforms that are rapidly ripening," 
says • "Thirty-five States since the last presidential 
election have adopted ballot reform. It is a cheer- 
ing symptom, the swiftness with which ballot re- 
form has swept the land; and although the poli- 
ticians, who dared not oppose it altogether, have in 
some cases weakened it, there will be less chance 
this year for the treason of bribery than four years 
ago. A politician who had been seen to pass $10 to 
a voter just before he cast his ballot was asked in 
court for what he paid that money. 'For a hog,' 
he replied, which was both true and false. Ballot 
reform will check this traffic in 'hogs,' by making it 
impossible for a man to know whether the /hog' 
he bought was delivered. Joseph Cook sums up his 






KEMALK FILOSOFY. 143 

suffrage views in the motto: 'No sex, no shirks, 
no simpletons in suffrage.' By 'no shirks' he 
means compulsory voting. It must not be over- 
looked that some abstain from conscientious reasons, 
and others because in some elections the Devil has 
all the candidates. Let every voter who does not 
vote be required to record his reason. Such a record 
would furnish some wholesome reading for poli- 
ticians. As to ' simpletons,' it is bad enough to 
have them monopolize the jury box, without giv- 
ing them the ballot box also. One of the best cel- 
ebrations of the discovery of America would be to 
decide in this year 1892 that no more 'simpletons' 
will be registered as voters after the opening of 
the 20th century, six years hence, which would 
give time enough for every youth and immigrant 
to get ready for citizenship. Not only ability to 
read, but the use of that ability on American his- 
tory and the Constitution should be required. I saw 
recently twenty of the Huns and Cossacks that have 
invaded our country as they did Italy of old, made 
into American citizens in thirty minutes— one and a 
half minutes a piece. ' They were no more fit to be 
made citizens,' said the judge to me afterwards, 
' than so many cattle.' No man should be natu- 
ralized until he is Nationalized," 



144 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

SCHOOL SUFFKAGE 



NOT one reason can be given against a woman 
voting at school elections. Every reason is on 
her side. The way our public schools are 
governed and teachers treated sometimes is a dis- 
grace even to the politics that runs them. It is su- 
preme folly to change the superintendent of a school 
or a professor in a university every time the politics 
of the board changes. And yet in many places it is 
the case. We have known several superintendents 
and quite a number of teachers in different schools 
that have been discharged by the change of the pol- 
itics of directors. In two superintendents' cases 
the outgoing men were Christian men and the incom- 
ing men were skeptics, and instead of building up 
character and strengthening the religious home 
teaching in the children, they were made to doubt, 
and fear that their parents were wrong religiously. 
Would Christian men be turned out for political 
reasons if the school affairs were managed by wo- 
men, or at least if women helped to select persons to 
manage the schools? 

Who are more interested, and who would do more 
for the children left to the mother's care and train- 
ing, than those mothers would do? The schools are 
practically in the hands of women to-day. Over 65 
per cent, of the teachers are females. In our large 
cities there is generally a male superintendent, and 



FEMALE FiLOSOtfY. 145 

female teachers do the work. And most of the cities 
will not have a male teacher at all. They want only 
one of that kind, to be boss and draw the big salary. 
And who could be more capable and adapted to 
choose teachers for the young than those who have 
spent most of their lives in teaching, or training chil- 
dren at home? InLiverton, R. I., all the members 
of the school board are women; and the superin- 
tendent says the schools of that town are the best 
conducted schools in the State 

Many school houses are ill-ventilated and wholly 
in an unsanitary condition. The children die of 
diphtheria and scarlet fever. If the mothers, who 
cannot help caring for their children, could add their 
votes to those of the fathers who also care, the schools 
would be made healthier. 

In a certain town of the West, where New England 
men and women made their home, a log school house, 
worn out and old, had holes in the floor through 
which the cold wind gave the children chilblains, 
and great cracks in the walls gave them colds. There 
was need of a new school house. But many men did 
not want to pay the tax necessary to build it, and 
the vote for a new school house could only be carried 
by adding the vote of the mothers (who all wanted 
a new school house) to that of the men who wanted 
it. To the women, their children were more than 
money. They voted, with the men who wanted it, 
for the new school house, and to-day the children 
are snug and warm in the new building. And thus 
9 



146 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

ib will ever be. Give the women the school ballot, 
and they will give us better schools. 

But then it is strange we would give the school 
ballot and not the ballot for county and state officers. 
I can scarcely understand it, unless this is the rea- 
son : Giving them the ballot means they can have 
the office, too. But men will not lose any money by 
that office for the directors generally get no pay. If 
this be not the reason, why did the Republicans of 
Ohio allow them to vote for school directors and hold 
the school office that pays no salary, and refuse to 
allow them to vote for and hold the school office 
(State school commissioner) that pays a salary? 

According to the wise heads in the Ohio legisla- 
ture last winter, the women are capable of electing a 
committee, and even of composing that committee 
which performs the most responsible duty of select- 
ng a teacher to train young minds and souls for 
both time and eternity. And yet they are neither 
capable nor are they to be trusted to decide who 
would be a fit man (for sheriff) to care for criminals. 

'O, consistency thou art a jewel." But the women, 
of Ohio should be thankful for small favors, and 
that may bring larger ones. Use what they have 
without complaining that they got so little. Prove 
that so much is good, and that will certainly beget 
more. It will be like the widow's oil — increase by 
using. Every woman who loves home and children 
ought to take an interest in the election of good 
school officers, and the selection of good school 
teachers. Such will have much to do with the hap- 
piiness of the home and the training of the children 
in both home and school. 



■■ 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 147 



MUNICIPAL SUFFRAGE. 



WOMEN have had municipal suffrage now 
for many years in hundreds of cities. 
Everywhere experience has shown the truth 
of Henry Ward Beecher's prediction, uttered nearly 
forty years ago, when woman suffrage was still an 
untried experiment. Mr. Beecher said: 

''Does not every man at all conversant with public 
affairs know that you are obliged to choose men for 
office with reference to those who are to vote for 
them, and that, if men were selected whose election 
depended as much upon the votes of women as upon 
the votes of men, not one bad man would be put up, 
where there are fifty selected now?" 

Popular government in the city is degenerating 
into government by a " boss." When Herbert Spen- 
cer was visiting this country he said. " You retain 
the forms of freedom; but, as far as I can gather, 
there has been a considerable loss of the substance. 
It is true that those who rule do not do it by means 
of retainers armed with swords, but they do it through 
regiments of men armed with voting papers, who obey 
the word of command as loyally as did the depend- 
ent! of the feudal nobles, and who thus enable their 



148 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

leaders to override the general will, and make the 
community submit to their exactions as effectually as 
their prototypes of old. Manifestly those who framed 
your Constitution never dreamed that twenty thous- 
and citizens would go to the polls led by a "boss." 

Judge Valentine, of the Kansas Supreme Court, 
after observing for some years the effect of the wo- 
man's vote in municipal elections said: 

"The women's vote have generally been cast in 
favor of good officers and good government. When 
it is known that women may vote at city elections if 
they choose, only the names of fairly good men or 
fairly good women will be presented for offices, for, 
as a rule, only such can be elected." 

There are more good women than good men in any 
town, city or community. If the good women of the 
locality could unite with the good men they could 
accomplish something in reforms. Would such wick- 
ed men as Mayors Harrison and Hopkins be elected 
to rule cities if the women had a voice? The former 
rejected a petition of many thousands for closing the 
illegal Sabbath saloons, because many of the peti- 
tioners were women. They had no vote. What did 
they amount to? Hopkins, his successor, vetoed a 
bill for closing the stores and business houses and 
places on the Sabbath. He gave his reason for his 
veto, "cannot sanction a measure which, under the 
guise of a police regulation for the preservation of 
the peace and good order of society on the Sabbath, 
SO radically interferes with the private affairs of cit- 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 149 

izens;" meaning by "citizens" his ward masters 
and their apprentices and servants in wickedness. 

"In the early settlement of Wyoming Territory, the 
necessity to secure shelter and places in which to 
live compelled men to work on Sundays as well as 
other days. When houses were built, the habit of 
every-day work with open shops and business all the 
time continued, when there was no longer any need 
of it. Many men desired a quiet Sunday. But they 
could not elect a city government in Cheyenne which 
would not permit business on that day unless the 
women, who all wanted a quiet Sunday, should vote 
with the men who wanted an orderly Sunday. The 
women voted, and their votes, added to those of the 
men, secured the right city government. After Wy- 
oming women found what they could do with their 
votes, they have never since been afraid to vote." — 
Selected. 

Dr. Lyman Abbott published in the Outlook a state- 
ment that there are disreputable resorts in Cheyenne, 
as an illustration of 'how woman suffrage works in 
Wyoming.' It would be as fair an argument to 
quote the existence of disreputable resorts in Brook- 
lyn as an illustration of the workings of Plymouth 
Church. 

No one supposes that women suffrage will bring 
in the millennium. The Christian church has not 
yet succeeded in bringing the millennium, either, 
but that does not prove that the Christian church is 
not a beneficent institution. There is as clear evi- 






150 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

dence that woman suffrage has done good in Wyo- 
ming as there is that Dr. Abbott's. church has done 
good in Brooklyn. The influence of woman suffrage 
has been wholly good so far as it has reached, though 
it has not reached far enough to abolish everything 
bad. ,, — -Selected. 

To see the importance of municipal reform we 
need but read Dr. Strong's "New Era," (pages 179- 
183). To know what the women can do and will do, 
even with a tithe of a chance, we need but recount the 
defeat of Breckenridge and Tammany in the last 
elections. If the women can do so much without the 
ballot, what could they not do with it? If Breck- 
enridge could have bought 150 votes more of the 
votes cast he would have been nominated, and all the 
women's work thwarted because they could not ex- 
press themselves at the ballot box. But by that ex- 
pression he would have fallen behind more thousands 
than he did hundreds without their votes. The same 
to Tammany. It is simply an outrage and imposition 
on the women to expect them to do the unpleasant 
work of campaigning and electioneering and refuse 
to let them do the nicer and easier work of register- 
ing their protest against iniquity and political 
corruption at the polls. Shame on the men who ask 
and expect such ! Here is what Dr. Strong says about 
the corruption of cities that need reforming. 

I. The government of the city is by a "boss," who 
is skillful in the manipulation of the "machine," 
and who holds no political principles "except for 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 151 

revenue only." His sentiments and practice accord 
perfectly with the brutal and infamous utterance of 
Senator Ingalls? "The purification of politics is an 
irridescent dream. Government is force. Politics is 
a battle for supremacy. Parties are the armies. The 
Decalogue and the Golden Rule have no place in a 
political campaign. The object is success. To de- 
feat the antagonist and expel the party in power is 
the purpose. In war it is lawful to deceive the ad- 
versary, to hire Hessians, to purchase mercenaries, 
to mutilate, to kill, to destroy." 

The "boss" is the natural product of a vicious 
political partizanship, together with a large foreign 
population which has not sufficient character and 
intelligence for independent or individual judgment 
and action. While in the aggregate there are many 
foreigners to whom this remark does not apply, we 
still have the "Irish vote," the "German vote," the 
"Roman Catholic vote" and the like,which by appeals 
to race or religious prejudice or for "value received" 
may be cast in great blocks— which of course consti- 
tutes the city, the demagogue's Paradise. Human 
nature is no weaker in the city than in the country, 
no more corrupt in America than in Europe. The 
existence of great masses of votes which can be easily 
bought and sold or otherwise controlled is sure to 
find unscrupulous men who are only too willing by 
such means to seize power and plunder. 

European cities are in population remarkably ho- 
mogeneous and native ; ours are remarkably hetero- 



152 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

geneous and foreign. London is deemed a little 
world, because one may meet there the representa- 
tives of almost every race ; and yet "out of every one 
hundred Londoners in 1880, sixty-three were natives 
of London, ninety-four of England and Wales, and 
ninety-eight of Great Britain and Ireland. The Em- 
erald Isle furnished but 2.1 per cent of London's 
population; and all foreign countries put together, 
only 1.6 percent." — [Census of England and Wales, 
1881, Vol. IV. p. 59. Quoted by S. L. Loomis in 
"Modern Cities."] Contrast this with the foreign 
element of our cities. The Tenth Census showed 
that of our fifty principal cities 29.8 per cent, of the 
population were foreign-born, while those who were 
foreign by birth or parentage often constituted three- 
fourths or four-fifths of the population. 

Most of these foreigners have little understanding 
of our political issues and less of our institutions. 
They see nothing to be gained by independent action 
at the polls and much to be gained bj concerted 
action. They accordingly follow their leaders, and 
are led into whatever camp bids highest in patronage 
and plunder. Doubtless in every city the good citi- 
zens who want honest government are in a majority, 
but with fatal folly they divide on political questions 
which have no more to do with municipal govern- 
ment than with the' moon ; and this division enables 
the "bosses" to hold the balance of power and dic- 
tate their terms. The perfectly natural result is a 
debauched city government. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 153 

The officials of European cities are often eminent 
men, the fittest possible for the place, who honor their 
office and are honored by it. But such is the corrup- 
tion of municipal politics here that only now and then 
will a man of high character accept office . Many of the 
more intelligent are so disgusted that they will not 
even go to the polls. Others stay away, because, as 
they say, "Its no use;" while others are "too busy" 
to vote. A few years ago there was an important 
election in New York, the result of which would de- 
termine whether criminals were to be vigerously pros- 
ecuted. And though there was more than usual 
interest in the election three miles of brownstone 
fronts on Fifth Avenue furnished but twenty-eight 
votes. It is quite possible that Cherry Street and 
the "Bend" furnished more votes than they had 
voters. Some one has said with as much truth as 
wit : "The mediaeval sovereign hired a fellow to be 
his fool ; but the * popular sovereign' often hires the 
fellow to be his master, and is his own fool." 

To how great an extent he is his own fool who ab- 
sents himself from the polls or who respects party 
lines in municipal elections, does not appear until 
he reckons up how much it costs to hire the fellow to 
be his master. 

It costs a heavy burden of debt and taxation. 
Ten of our larger cities, whose aggregate population 
is 6,466,000, have a total indebtedness of over 
$351,000,000, or fifty-four dollars per caput for each 
inhabitant, Mr. Bryce gives the following table of 



154 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

the increase of population, valuation, taxation, and 
debt in fifteen of the largest cities of the United 
States, s from 1860 to 1875.— [The American Com- 
monwealth, Vol. I. p. 607.] 

Increase in population, . . 70.5 per cent. 
" " taxable valuation, 156.9 " 

" debt, .... 270.9 
" " taxation, . . , 363.2 " 

The increase of the municipal debt of New York 
in a single generation was from $10,000,000 in 1840 
to #113,000,000 in 1876. The Et. Hon. Joseph 
Chamberlain, in a comparison of Birmingham and 
Boston, shows that of these two cities, having about 
the same population in 1870, the latter expends more 
than six times as much as the former for the same 
objects. After examining the management of a hun- 
dred of our cities, great and small, he says : 
"Americans pay for less efficient service in their 
large towns nearly five times as much as is paid in 
the case of a well-managed English municipality." 
(Municipal Institutions in America and England, 
"The Forum", November, 1892.) 

If the objects for which these great expenditures 
are made were really secured, the waste would be 
less lamentable ; but they are not. The streets are 
generally ill-paved and filthy, sanitary provisions 
are neglected, the public health is involved, and pub- 
lic works are rarely creditable. An extremely able 
commission, of which Hon. W. M. Evarts was cLu.ir- 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 155 

man, referring to the debt of New York City, said: 
"The magnitude and rapid increase of this debt are 
not less remarkable than the poverty of the results 
exhibited as the return for so prodigious an expen- 
diture. . . In truth, the larger part of the city 
debt represents a vast aggregate of money wasted, 
embezzled, or misapplied.' ' (Quoted in "The Amer- 
ican Commonwealth," Vol. I, p. 609.) 

A memorial presented to the Pennsylvania legisla- 
ture in 1883 by a number of the leading citizens of 
Philadelphia contained the following: "Philadel- 
phia is now recognized as the worst paved and worst 
cleaned city in the civilized world. The effort to 
clean the streets was abandoned for months, and no 
attempt was made to that end until some public- 
spirited citizens, at their own expense, cleaned a 
number of the principal thoroughfares. The system 
of sewerage and the physical condition of the sewers 
are notoriously bad— so much so as to be dangerous to 
the health and most offensive to the comfort of our 
people. Public work has been done so badly that 
structures have had to be renewed almost as soon as 
finished. Others have been in part constructed at 
enormous expense, and then permitted to fall to de- 
cay without completion. Inefficiency, waste, badly- 
paved and filthy streets, unwholesome and offensive 
water, and slovenly and costly management, have 
been the rule for years past throughout the city gov- 
ernment." One might naturally ask, If we must 
have dangerous pavements and foul streets, unsani- 



156 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

tary sewers and pestilential tenements, wouldn't it 
be possible to secure them for less than four or five 
times as much as the English pay for good service? 

Another part of the cost of hiring "the fellow" to 
be our master is the "giving away" of valuable fran- 
chises which ought to bring the city many hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. 

But the cost in money is a small matter compared 
with the sacrifice of health, physical, intellectual 
and moral. 

The public health has been intrusted to "sanitary 
inspectors," who not only lacked special training 
and fitness, but also common intelligence — rumsell- 
ers and low pot-house politicians. A few years ago 
some of these "health-warden's" in New York testi- 
fied before an investigating committee of the state 
that there were cases of "hyjinnics" (hygienicks) in 
their wards. Some of these guardians of the pub- 
lic health thought the people "had the hyjinnicks 
pretty bad," while others wera of opinion that the 
patients "got over" them quite easily. ("The Gov- 
ernment of American Cities," by Andrew D. White. 
"The Forum," December, 1890.) 

In different wards of the same city different sani- 
tary conditions sometimes cause a variation in the 
death-rate of ten or more in a thousand. A rise of 
two in a thousaad for the entire city of New York 
would mean over 300 additional deaths. In our large 
cities doubtless thousands of lives are sacrificed to 
POLITICS every year, not to mention the sickness 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 157 

and suffering which do not cost life. 

Our public schools are often sacrificed in like man- 
ner. The school board is made a political prize ; 
and men take charge of the education of the city 
who, in some instances, I am assured, are unable to 
read or write. Many thousands of children in our 
cities are forced to grow up in ignorance for lack of 
school accommodations. It was stated not long since 
that a recent investigation in Chicago revealed the 
fact that in one ward there were 4500 more children 
than there were school sittings. "The Christian 
Union," June 12, 1892.) 

But the most serious part of the cost of such gov- 
ernment is the price which is paid in moral character. 
Criminal houses flourish so openly that it is impossi- 
ble not to infer official complicity with vice. Strange 
that officers whose business it is to ferret out crime 
are unable to discover moral slaughter houses which 
respectable citizens cannot help knowing! Instead 
of making vice difficult and dangerous, every facility 
is afforded for corrupting the youth. 

This unspeakable folly is all but universal . Occa- 
sionally outraged citizens become sufficiently indig- 
nant to rebel against party leaders, and, in a moment 
of sanity, set up an independent candidate. But 
usually a partisan press succeeds in whipping enough 
good men back into line to defeat the reform move- 
ment. Returns from 127 cities show only ONE inde- 
pendent or non-political mayor. Politics is so thor- 
oughly rooted in our system of municipal government, 



158 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

and has so vitiated that system, that its failure has 
become notorious. "There is no denying," says Mr. 
Bryce, * 'that the government of cities is the one con- 
spicuous failure of the United States." Mr. Andrew 
D. White, who has enjoyed exceptional opportunities 
of observation, says: "Without the slightest exag- 
geration we may assert that, with very few excep- 
tions, the city governments of the United States are 
the worst in Christendom — the most expensive, the 
most inefficient, and the most corrupt." 

Florence M. Adkinson gives the following reasons 
for women wanting the municipal ballot : 

1. Because, as mothers, they are concerned in the 
maintenance of law and order in the suppression of 
disorderly places, immoral shows and obscene pos* 
ters and publications. 

2. As home- seekers, they are interested in gas and 
water rates, in the quality of gas and water supply, 
in sewer construction and connections, in the re- 
moval and disposal of garbage, and in the cleaning 
of streets, gutters and offensive places. 

3. As citizens and philanthropists, they are inter- 
ested in city charities and corrections, in hospital 
service, in relief work and care of the poor, in the 
management of penal and reformatory institutions, 
in the appointment of police matrons, the care of 
dependent or incorrigible children, in the disposal of 
tramps and offenders, and in the preservation of his- 
toric places. 



FEMALE FILOSOEY. 159 

4. As tax-payers and property-holders they are 
interested in the degree of protection afforded by 
the fire and police departments, in the construction 
and improvement of streets, sidewalks and parks, 
and in all expenditures affecting the rate of taxa- 
tion. 

The municipal ballot gives a voice in these and 
other municipal affairs in which the women who live 
in cities are deeply concerned." 

Dr. Anna Shaw writes in the "Woman's Tribune" 
as follows : 

"Take the great cities of the country that are so 
badly mismanaged, and you find organizations of 
women banded together, not to do harm to the city or 
to put forth temptations that degrade and drag down 
its inhabitants, but to secure clean streets, and to do 
the best good they can. Take New York, Chicago, 
Philadelphia and other cities, and you find women 
banded together for that purpose. As to the suffrage 
taking up women's time and putting upon us respon- 
sibilities, I believe that it will be much easier for 
women of a city to go to the polls on election day 
and vote for the men who will see that these things 
are brought into the life of the city to make for it 
good health than for them to take the extra work of 
nursing children suffering from diphtheria and 
scarlet fever. It is much easier to vote for a good 
condition of the town than to take care of the bad 
condition. We have here a lady who was elected to 
the school board of Quincy, Mass. She went to work 



160 FEMALE ElLOSOFY. 

at a certain school. She asked the privilege of doing 
so, simply because the children who attended that 
school were so unhealthy, and so many of them died. 
The disease seemed to be of the worst character. The 
discoveries that she made in the building were enough 
to shock any good housekeeper. She went to work, 
cleaned the house from top to bottom, and found 
in the cellar a sunken tub, into which had been drip- 
ping water from leaks until the entire tub had rotted 
away and the stench had permeated the whole build- 
ing. The children were dying by the score. She 
went to work and did the general housecleaning of 
that school. And I submit to you she was much 
better adapted to it than any man in the city of 
Quincy, and the work was certainly not an added 
burden to the city of Quincy, but a great relief." 

And Laura M. Johns said at the N. S. A., Wash- 
ington, in Feb., '94: 

"The effect so far as the women themselves arc 
concerned has been all gain and no loss. They 
have learned that power, not feebleness, brings re- 
spect. They have gained in self-respect, sex-respect, 
and sense of public justice. I should consider woman 
suffrage an ample success, if only for its effect in 
opening to women new fields of work and more equal 
wages. Above all, it has broadened woman's mind, 
and fitted her better for motherhood and for com- 
radeship. She has lost nothing She is no less fine 
because she is stronger. She has met with no loss of 
chivalry. The voting women of the West do not 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 161 

have to stand in street cars any oftenerthan the non- 
voting women of the East — not so often in fact; for 
even slight courtesies shown to voters often produce 
a great effect. We have not exchanged privileges 
for rights, but have added rights to our privileges. 
Homes are not legs beloved, and woman suffrage has 
not proved the leveller that was expected. 

The women have exhibited no greed for office. 
Eleven women have been elected to mayoralties dur- 
ing the seven years in which women have been eligi- 
ble. Kansas has only two women mayors now. One 
of these was elected recently in Pleasanton, a county 
seat town, to fill out an unexpired term; the other, 
Mrs. Mary Barnes, was elected mayor of Geuda 
Springs at the regular election of 1893. Mrs. Barnes's 
4 aldermen ' are all women. This feminine admin- 
istration is strongly supported and warmly endorsed 
by the solid business men of the town, who declare 
themselves entirely satisfied with it, and say that they 
never had a better city government. 

Women as members of city councils are not unus- 
ual. Mixed councils meet with most favor among 
suffragists. Many women serve as members of school 
boards. Women are even clerks, treasurers, and 
directors of these boards ; they are also city elerke 
and treasurers. These two last-named are salaried 
offices, and women in them receive the same pay as 
men. 

We have this year our first woman city attorney, 
Mrs. Ella W. Brown, of Holton. She was admitted 

10 



162 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

to practice in the Supreme Court a year ago. She 
is an active member of the firm of Brown & Brown, 
being her husband's partner, and she has the respect 
of the bar of her coun-ty, and is declared to be a very 
efficient city attorney." 



WHY WOMEN WANT TO VOTE . 



MRS. ZARELDA WALLACE says a gentle- 
man once asked almost sneeringly, " 'What 
have you women ever done for the State that 
it should give you the ballot?' We were in a parlor 
with a company, and I did nor care to be drawn into 
a discussion ; but he persisted, till at last I said : 
'Napoleon realized fully the value of women to the 
State when] he said, 'The great need of France is 
mothers.' If women do not fight, they give to the 
State all its soldiers. A woman who goes down into 
the valley of the shadow of death every few years, 
who gives up her health, her beauty, her means of 
improvement, her social pleasures, that she may 
furnish soldiers for the State, certainly does as much 
for the State as the father who buys bread and shoes 
for the children.' 

4 Ah, ahem, I never thought of it in that light,' he 
said. 

'No.' 1 responded, 'I told you it was all a matter 

of growth and enlightenment.' " 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 163 

A dozen years or more ago the State of Illinois 
passed a Home Protection law. It provided for an 
election in which all adult inhabitants should partic- 
ipate and express themselves for or against license. 
The municipal authorities could condition their ac- 
tion at will . They were asked to condition it on the 
expressed will of the people. In twelve towns of the 
State the W.C.T.U. worked the ordinance into law. 
In each of these towns the combined vote of the 
women and the order-loving men carried for No 
license. In only one of them would the same result 
have been without the women's votes. They tried it 
in Rockford, a city of 14,000 inhabitants. And here 
is the account of the election of that city, for and 
against license, written by Mary B. Willard : 

"I wish there were more space here to tell of the 
heroic persistence of the women of Rockford, of their 
patient tramp from house to house and street to 
street for signatures to their petition for the ordi- 
nance, of their successful suit with the City Fathers, 
led and championed by such men as Mayor Wilkins, 
Congressman Lathrop and others; of their efforts »n, 
election day, and other preparations for the triumph- 
ant vote for Prohibition. There were places of 
rendezvous in every precinct, where the timid women 
might rally, and from which they might goto the polls 
in company; there were carriages to bring the sick, 
infirm and aged women, and then a bevy of fair young 
girls, not old enough to vote, who, anxious to do 
somewhat for the great issue of the day, said, 'We will 



164 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

go to the homes where there are little babies, that the 
mothers may go to the polls.' There were women of 
fashion and social leadership who drove the street all 
day, bringing women voters to the ballot boxes, their 
carriages placarded with such legends as 'Vote for 
Home Protection;' 'Vote for your homes this day.' 
There were strong cries and tears in many a home 
for the success of No License, and mothers plead with 
sons, wives with husbands and daughters with their 
fathers that every ballot might be a pure one, a vote 
for the safety of the street, the school, the church, 
and the home. In every voting place there were two 
ballot boxes — one for the reception of votes cast by 
men and women for License or No License ; the other 
for votes of men only, for municipal officers. Over 
both, judges were appointed by the City Council. At 
night when the ballots of the first box were counted 
it was found that No License had triumphed by a 
large majority. It was also found that more than 
2,000 women had voted at this extraordinary elec- 
tion and only FOUR of the 2,000 had voted for 
« License. This, coupled with the fact that not more 
than 2,500 votes were polled at the ordinary election 
when only men vote, indicated the general movement to 
be expected of the women of this and every city when 
so vital an issue is presented. The Scandinavian 
women, the German and the Irish women ranged 
themselves by the side of their American sisters in 
the Prohibition ranks, and against the enemy which 
has done so much to make their homes so uncom- 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 165 

fortable, and their lives desolate and dreary. Katrina 
came with her ballot, as determined to save Fritz 
from his beer as Bridget to keep whisky from Pat- 
rick. And so in the might and love of motherhood 
and wifehood 2,000 women marched to the polls and — 
delivered the city? Nay, verily. There was the 
other ballot box to be opened, which done, it was 
found that the votes of the male citizens had elected 
the License ticket, so far as the Councilmen were 
concerned, and this Council at its first session re- 
pealed the Home Protection ordinance and made the 
will of the people of none effect. 

There was but one conclusion possible from such 
premises. The W. C. T. U. of Rockford accepted it, 
as has the W. C.T.U. of the State : WOMEN MUST 
VOTE IN BOTH BOXES! They must vote for the 
men as well as the measures. For the officer behind 
the ordinance — for the law and for the law-enforcer. 

Conservative women, who had believed in the tem- 
perance ballot only, now became convinced that the 
temperance ballot is the whole ballot. 

Conscientious Christian women, many of them, 
came to believe for the first time that God's plan for 
the overthrow of the liquor traffic includes the FULL 
BALLOT FOR WOMEN. 

The W. C. T. U. seeks the ballot for no selfish 
ends. Asking it only in the interest of the home, 
which has been and is woman's divinely appointed 
province, there is no clamor for 'rights,' only prayer- 
ful, persistent plea for the opportunities of duty* 



166 Female fIloso^v. 

The fear in our hearts is not of unwomanly action, 
but of responsibility unfulfilled. The dreadful shad- 
ow of a gigantic evil is over us. Up to this time the 
efforts of good men have failed to cut it down or to 
repress it. Year by year it grows faster than our 
nation's growth, and no power has yet been applied 
to check its fearful encroachments. 

Men of America, will you call us to your side in 
this irrepressible conflict without weapons for the 
fight? We ask only to help you in the overthrow of 
this universal enemy of the home. You have called 
us queens of home, and home, the woman's kingdom. 
But we are uncrowned even there while this foe 
menaces us." 

"Set over against the appetite of the drinker and 
the avarice of the saloonkeeper the undying mother- 
love of the home." — Frances E. Willard. 

Here are "Eight Reasons why Women should want 
the Ballot," by Mrs. S. M. Perkins, editor of "A 
True Republic," Cleveland, 0.: 

1. Bright, thinking, progressive women, can put 
two and two together and know that they make 
four. They can see on the pages of history that a 
disfranchised people never had their rights. The 
disfranchised are always held in subjection by the 
enfranchised. Women do not propose to be held in 
subjection. 

2. "Taxation without representation is tyranny," 
to-day as in 1776. Many of our women are tax-pay- 
ers. They are scholarly, but Pat, their hired man, 



FEMALE EIIvOSOFY. 167 

can go to the polls and help dispose of their money, 
while thGy have no voice in the matter. Pat can say 
how much the appropriation shall be for the schools 
and the prisons, while he cannot read his own vote. 
Is not this serfdom humiliating to the women of our 
country? 

8. Women have homes, and tkey love them better 
than any other places upon the broad earth. Many 
of them have sons that they have early consecrated 
to God, and have prayed over them every day from 
their birth. These sons are nice and gentle and obe 
dient till they reach the dangerous age of fifteen. 
Then the cradle influence has waned. She that rocks 
the cradle cannot rule the world, because she cannot 
keep the world in the cradle. The boy outgrows the 
cradle, he kicks over the cradle, and though he loves 
his mother, he sees that she has no great influence in 
the outside world, and he is going to be a man. and a 
voter. The mother's influence has departed. If the 
father drinks, the boy will drink. If the father 
smokes, the boy will smoke. He loses respect for his 
mother because she is so powerless, and goes with 
the other boys to the saloon and house of prostitu- 
tion, and is lost to honor, to virtue, and to decency. 

4. Many of our women are temperance workers. 
Some of them were crusaders twenty years ago. They 
look over our city of Cleveland and see 2,000 saloons, 
all of them doing good financial business. If each 
saloon ruined only ten boys per annum — and they do 
much more than that— there are twenty thousand 



168 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

ruined each year. Can we afford that ruin? If a 
man was mean enough to poison a stream where cat- 
tle drink, the law would take the matter in hand and 
the mean man would be punished. Cattle must be 
protected. They are so much more precious than the 
boys and the homes. The officials of our large cities 
are standing committees for saloonkeepers. Indeed, 
the officials, they tell me, are sometimes carried home 
in an unconscious condition. Do you wonder that 
the schools in Cleveland graduate five girls to one 
boy? Do you wonder that the saloons graduate nine- 
teen boys to one girl? Cities reach their climax of 
iniquity — the cup becomes full to the brim, and they 
go slowly to decay and ruin. 

What caused the fall of ancient Tyre and Sidon, of 
Greece and Rome? Was it their virtue, their tem- 
perance, their Christianity? Nay, it was their vices 
their idleness and their intemperance and dissipa- 
tion. Our nation will go down with them, and the 
future traveler will look over the ruins of Euclid ave- 
nue and sigh over the crumbling viaducts, unless 
some redeeming influence is brought to bear in our 
political life. 

Twenty years ago our temperance women imagined 
that their tears and prayers would close every saloon, 
but when they had tried it a score of years and the 
saloons increased in number in every community, 
they had a clearer vision given them. They per- 
ceived that God works by means, and they had got to 
do something themselves to rid our land of the curse. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. , 169 

Then they murmured, I WOULD like to vote for 
temperance but nothing else. But they soon saw the 
fallacy of this. The temperance question touches 
all other questions, and good men are needed to en- 
force the laws. Now they say give us the full ballot, 
give us 

"The weapon that comes down as still 
As snowflakes fall upon the sod, 

But executes a freeman's will, 
As lightnings do the will of God." 

5. Women should want the ballot, because they 
are, some of them, wage- workers, and they know, 
full well, the small pittance, called wages, that is 
held out to them and is an insult to their woman- 
hood. "Equal pay for equal work" will never be 
given while women are disfranchised. If we travel 
we must pay the same fare as do the men. We pay 
the same for our rent. Our food and our clothing 
cost the same, but if we keep a school or make a vest, 
they give us one-half or two-thirds the pay that men 
receive for doing the same work. Two women have 
just been dismissed from physical culture work in 
our public schools. A man is put in the place, at 
double the salary. Is that fair? 

They tell us that there are ten thousand tramps in 
our country that beg from door to door, a terror to 
peaceful homes. Women are not tramps. If a wo- 
man cannot get a dollar a day she will work for fifty 
cents, and when she fails to get that she will work 
for 25 cents, rather than beg her bread. 



170 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

6. Women should want the ballot because they 
hear the silly, selfish remark from the outsiders, 
"Oh, I have all the rights that I want; why need I 
trouble myself about the ballot?" It is a very sel- 
fish woman who says that. If she be a favored one, 
and has a beautiful home and a kind husband and 
sweet children, and servants and horses and carriages, 
and all that makes a woman happy, should she not 
do a little reform work as a thank-offering for her 
happy lot? Should she not think of that other wo- 
man, just as good, just as pure as she, in some dark 
attic, up three or four flights of stairs, sewing on 

. shirts at a sixpence apiece, and dreading to hear at 
the door the step that once thrilled her with pleas- 
ure ? If the ballot would help that other woman in 
closing saloons; should she not seek to give it to 
her? No man liveth unto himself ; no woman should 
live to herself, but do earnest work for humanity. 

7. Women should want the ballot because they 
compose two-thirds of the church-members of the 
country, and as the care of all the churches devolve 
upon them, they should have greater facilities for 
raising the money to support the church services. 
Now if the salary of the minister falls behind, or 
church needs repairs, the poor, tired women resort 
to crazy quilts, lotteries and oyster suppers to eke 
out the money needed. When, were they voters, 
could put men into office, the men would all be 
at church, just to show these voters what nice office- 
holders they would make, and what a beautiful 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 171 

thing it would be to cast for them a ballot. The 
men would then give the money. 

8th. Some women are popular society people. 
They should have the ballot because this reform is 
becoming immensely popular, and they should not 
get left when the chariot wheels of progress are pass- 
ing by. Good men, men whom cultivated women all 
honor and respect— these all say, Give women the 
ballot. Men of honor and cultivation all favor the 
reform. The opposer is the man who hangs around 
saloons while his wife supports him. The saloon- 
keepers, the brewers and distillers all dread the bal- 
lot in woman's hands much more than they dread the 
Asiatic cholera. In convention assembled they said 
this a year ago: "Do not fear the ministers ; two- 
thirds of them are perfectly silent about our busi- 
ness. Do not fear the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation ; they are perfectly silent about our business. 
But I will tell you whom you may fear — the W. C. 
T. U. and the suffrage societies. Do all in your 
power to keep the ballot out of the hands of the 
women. Should women vote, the death-knell will 
be sounded to our business." Now, you tell us any 
time what the saloonkeepers want, and I will tell you 
what women do not want. They want to destroy 
lives; we want to save them. May God help us all 
to see our duty clearly and work while the day lasts, 
for the night cometh when no man can work." 



1?2 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

THE DUTY OF WOMEN TO VOTE. 



IT is as much the duty of a woman to vote and 
be interested in good government as it is a man's 
duty. It is her country as well as his. Her 
children have to live in it as well as his. She should 
be even more interested than he ; for on her falls 
principally the care and training of the children. 
And every one ought to make it as hard for others 
to do wrong and as easy to do right as possible. 
And what right has a woman to accuse a husband 
for not arraying himself against the saloon, or any 
form of sin and iniquity, when she will not do it 
herself? 

We are all under obligation to contribute what- 
ever faculty God has given us to make and keep our 
land a pure, safe and happy land. How dare women 
with good homes and husbands, resting on roses, 
say they "have all the rights they want," when they 
see so many thorns in the lives of others, and are not 
lifting a finger for their relief? It is a strange atti- 
tude for the followers of the lowly Nazarene. 

Gladstone writes : "All those who live in a country 
should take an interest in that country; and the 
vote gives that sense of interest, and fastens that 
love." 

Do these women who "have all the rights they 
want" forget the 250,000 licensed schools of vice 
in their country that make their own door-yard fence 



FEMALE KILOSOFY. 173 

the dead-line beyond which the darlings of their 
bosoms pass with danger to their souls? Will not 
God sit in judment against those who, amid brighter 
light and greater privileges, sit at ease in Zion while 
such snares are laid for souls? Have they nothing 
to return to God and humanity for his wonderful 
goodness in making their lot so happy in life? "In 
as much as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did 
it unto me." 

Their condition and blessings in life have come 
from the pioneers who had many hardships to en- 
dure before the present conditions have been reached. 
Will they not help to make it easier for those who 
are to come after them? 

A few women now get equal pay with men for 
equal work. But it was not always thus. Neither 
is it everywhere thus yet. A lady said to the writer 
some time ago: "I gave up a position last week at 
eight dollars a week, and a man took it at sixteen 
dollars a week." And yet that woman thought she 
did not want to vote. t A manufacturer some time 
ago turned off his bookkeeper. He hired a lady to 
take his place. A friend was in the office one day 
and said : "How do you like your new bookkeeper?" 
He replied, "First rate. She does her work better 
and neater, and is always at her post punctually, 
and never goes off on a spree, as the former one did." 
"Well, I suppose you pay her more than you paid 
the former one?" "No," he replied, "she's a wo- 
man, and women don't get as much as men." 



174 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

When two children are left orphans, and turned 
out into the world to make a living, the laws, cus- 
toms, usages and prejudices of the people are all 
against the girl, and in favor of the boy. Put them 
to doing the same kind of work, in the same estab- 
lishment, under the same employer, and can we not 
easily see that the one" is " nothing but a woman." 
And only when women help to make the laws that 
regulate wages will women get equal pay for equal 
work. 

We now have one standard of morals for men and 
boys, and another one for women and girls. Girls 
must be kept under the influence of their mothers, 
but boys go where they wish, and do as they please. 
They smoke, chew and drink, and not much is 
thought of it. But it would be terrible for girls to 
do the same. When Madeline Pollard answered an 
advertisement in New York for a nurse in a wealthy 
family, and told who she was, she was insulted, and 
the door slammed in her face. But when her male 
partner in her crime, Breckenridge, returned to Con- 
gress, a bouquet of flowers greeted him from his desk. 

A woman disgraced is a woman ostracised from 
society, and an outcast forever. A man disgraced 
only makes him "smart" in the eyes of th3 people, 
and they give him some high office. 

Read what Samantha Allen says on this in "One 
Standard for Both Sexes," further on. 

Do women really have all the rights they want? 
Has a married woman a right to her earnings? 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 175 

Has she a right to make a will? Has she a right 
to her own children if left a widow? Can her 
husband not bequeath them to strangers if he de- 
sires? If a wife and husband together acquire 
a farm, can she dispose of her half of it? How 
much of it would she have after the death of her 
husband? 

Does she not want a vote and voice in saying how 
much taxes she must pay, and for what purpose they 
are to be spent? Does she not want to vote for 
school and temperance laws? If under the present 
condition of things women have all the rights they 
want, they are either easily satisfied or ought to be 
ashamed of themselves. Yea, verily both of them. 
Here are a few good facts, gathered from a tract 
in circulation : 

"If the laws are wrong, they are being cor- 
rected without woman's voting. " f Aye, but not 
without the demand of women to vote, and the con- 
sequent agitation of the subject. That is what is 
changing the laws. The Common Law of England 
(which Lord Brougham called "a disgrace to any 
heathen nation," so far as it related to women) pre- 
vailed almost everywhere in the United States, until 
the "Woman's Rights" agitation began, twenty-five 
years ago. It was not till women began to talk 
about the ballot that any changes began to be made 
in the laws ; and they have no security against the 
repeal of those improvised laws except the ballot in 
their hands 



176 FEMALE KILOSOFY. 

We grant that immense changes have already been 
made in the laws for women. They have been made 
by the woman suffrage agitation, however, and no 
changes were proposed till women began to demand 
the ballot. Some of the laws that most oppress women 
still defile the statute books of the various States. 
Only six of the States of the Union allow the mar- 
ried mother to be an equal legal owner and guardian 
of her minor children with her husband. In all 
other States the father has the legal control and 
ownership. The laws everywhere declare that the 
wife's services belong to the husband, and accord to 
them no money value, only stipulating that she shall 
receive at his hands such board and clothing as he 
chooses to furnish, thus making her a pauperized 
dependent upon him. If she have leisure and ability 
to earn money, in fully half the States of the Union 
the law gives the husband her earnings also. They 
are his, because he owns the wife and her services. 
In almost all respects the laws give to the husband 
almost complete and irresponsible power over the 
wife, which it is never safe to bestow on any one. Is 
it strange that there is unhappiness in married life 
and frequency of divorce? 

A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Iowa 
expresses the condition of women in most States to- 
day. Mrs. Hall, of Manson, Iowa, sustained serious 
injuries from a fall caused by the carelessness of the 
town authorities, and sued the town for damages, 
and received a verdict for $3,000. An appeal was 






Female filosoEy. lit 

taken to the Supreme Court and sustained, on the 1 
following assumption: "A married woman being a 
1 mere housewife ' for her husband, and he being 
bound for her support, her earnings belong to him; 
and any loss of time occasioned by the wife's injury- 
is solely HIS loss; therefore, the husband only can 
recover damages, and the wife's claim is not valid; 
as the time lost is not her time." Mrs. Ellen B, 
Dietrick in the "Twentieth Century," says: "This 
remarkable decision (rendered in June, 1894) places 
the wife in that Asiatic category which speaks of a 
man's wife, and his ox, and his ass, or ANYTHING 
WHICH IS HIS. It deals with the wife as a chat- 
tel, not even possessing the measure of individuality 
conceded to the average modern man-servant or maid- ^ 
servant. It degrades housekeoping below the level 
of all self-supporting occupations, for the ' mere 
housewife ' is not credited with earning even her 
own support! It reeks of the ignorance of the days 
of barbaric depotism, when parents sold their boys 
for one purpose and their girls for another; or, of 
the days of savagery, when captives became their 
captor's property, male captives being broken to one 
form of yoke, female captives to another. Behold 
how far the rights of woman have traveled in the 
year of our Lord, 1894, in a land which wishes to be 
considered as Christian!" 



11 



178 *EMAI,E fWOSOFY. 




THE DUTY OF MEN TO LET WOMEN VOTE. 

OME one gives us the following good thoughts : 
4 'We see constantly in political papers a lam- 
entation that our young men are growing up 
ignorant of republican institutions, and as a remedy 
they are proposing that civil government be taught 
in our public schools. The public schools are largely 
in the hands of our young girls. Woman has the 
education of the future citizens committed to her, 
even before the child sees the light. Do you expect 
these women to educate boys in the duties of citizen- 
ship ; and more, do you expect woman to honor the 
government that first dishonors her? If you wish 
our republican institutions to be a permanency, you 
must take this badge of inferiority and dishonor off 
her brows. It is not a question of woman's rights 
at all ; it is a question of human rights ; it is a ques- 
tion of the success or failure of republican institu- 
tions. A danger now threatens the commonwealth 
through committing the education of its children to 
a disfranchised class. One element of Rome's decay 
was in her placing Greek schoolmasters over Roman 
boys. All the culture of Greece could not make 



FEMALE "FlLOSOFY. 179 

amends for the lack of interest the disfranchised 
Greeks took in Roman affairs of State. More and 
more the schools of America are passing under the 
control of woman, and she has so demonstrated her 
fitness to teach that this educational reform will not 
go backward. Then, for the safety of the nation, it 
must go forward, till, by her enfranchisement, her 
fitness to be the teacher of America's future citizens 
is complete." 

"Think of the effect of this dishonor upon the 
boys of the land. The mother tries to teach her boy 
that he must be pure and temperate and honorable ; 
that he must control his passions, and walk as a man 
among men, if he would succeed in life. That boy 
goes out from his mother, and the first thing he 
meets with neutralizes and gives the lie to all his 
mother's teachings. He says to himself, 'Why, 
mother says so and so ; ' but he finds men in high 
places violating all those teachings, and he begins to 
conclude that his mother does not know much about 
it. From that moment the boy discounts his moth- 
er's judgment, and though she must still have a hold 
on his affections, she does not have a hold upon him 
in any other way. There is where you wrong us, 
gentlemen, and cripple us in training men who will 
make the statesmen of this nation. If you want us 
to make statesmen, you must give the women an in- 
terest in the government, and you must count their 
opinions." 



180 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

"A little boy of five or six years old last fall, 
hearing the earnest talk all around him in regard to 
the election, looked up in his mother's face, that face 
to which he had ever looked for decision and coun- 
sel, authority and strength, and asked, 'Mother, how 
are you going to vote?' And her heart was too full 
to answer as she might have done, 'My son! you will 
some day vote, but I perhaps never! for I am allow- 
ed only to give my sons to fight for my country, and 
my money to pay its expenses, but it does not recog- 
nize that I have any part or lot in its affairs." 

"You trust your dearest interests to woman; you 
confide to her keeping your honor, your children, 
the sacred interests of your home. Why fear to trust 
her with the ballot, by which she can serve and de- 
fend all these? You call her the queen of home, and 
so she is ; but without the ballot she is an uncrowned 
queen, and her sceptre but a broken reed. Call this 
the home of the free! So long as its women are 
classed with criminals, idiots and paupers it can 
never be free." 

Dr. Gregg says : "I am in favor of woman suffrage 
because of certain axiomatic truisms which are in my 
mind, and which I cannot expel. The denial of suf- 
frage to women clashes with these. They are such 
as these : Suffrage is the badge of equality. Now, 
while woman is differently endowed from man, yet 
she is equally endowed. It is a matter of right and 
justice and logical consistency that the same fran- 
chise should be given to all who meet the conditions 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 181 

of franchise. No one should have the power to take 
advantage of another. Taxation without represen- 
tation is tyranny. The consent of the governed is 
necessary to a just government. Laws based on 
principle are better than those based on sex. An 
aristocracy of sex is repugnant to a republic. Suf- 
frage is as much the natural right of woman as it is 
of man. A class compelled to accept of inferior 
rights is a class that is always relegated to inferior 
duties. A class deprived of a vote, which is the 
great American power, is placed upon a lower labor- 
plane. There should be the largest liberty of the 
individual consistent with the equality of all. Wo- 
man is interested in the very same questions that in- 
terest man. They affect her with equal intensity. 
Therefore, she should have the same weapon with 
which to deal with them. The labor question is a 
woman question; so is the marriage question. The 
divorce question is a woman question, and so is the 
question of legislation, which makes laws for tRe 
home and for society. The question of education is 
a woman question. Shall it be co-education or non- 
co-education? On all these questions the practical 
value of woman's vote is precisely the same as the 
practical value of man's vote. To keep woman un- 
der legal disabilities ; to make her a cipher, at the 
left-hand-side of the unit, man ; to govern her by 
arbitrary laws, and block her progress by arbitrary 
barriers; to make her a political nonentity, or a po- 
litical outcast — all these things clash with the ax- 



182 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

iomatic truisms which are throbbing within me, and 
my whole nature cries out: Away with them!" 

"The world is looking at America's experiment of 
self-government. The women of this nation must 
do their duty, or the experiment will prove a failure. 
I believe that this is the last great struggle which 
the race is to make for freedom — the struggle for the 
rights of woman ; that secured, the perpetuity of the 
nation is secure. A gentleman said to me recently, 
•Mrs. Wallace, you are too sanguine. Rome took 
five hundred years to die. America may be even now 
dying.' I answered, 'America need not die for five 
thousand years.' What does the Bible say of the 
cause of decay in nations? 'The nations that will 
not serve me shall perish. Woe to him that buildeth 
a city on iniquity, and foundeth it in blood." Has 
the highest attainment of your wisdom, after centur- 
ies of culture, reached only to the licensing of evil, 
and with this blood money paving your streets, 
building jails and penitentiaries to hold the natural 
products of the evil you have licensed? O, my sisters ! 
have you not a responsibility in this matter?" 

"We have in this country the best men on the face 
of the earth, still it is true that the overwhelming 
majority in the prisons, and almost all those in the 
dramshops, are of their sex; while women are in the 
majority in the churches and all good work. God 
never would let the war between freedom and slavery 
end until the slaves were put into the army ; and He 
will never let the conflict between good and evil now 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 183 

going on in the nation end until all the virtue of the 
Republic is expressed at the polls." 

John G. Woolley, looking over his audience, con- 
gratulated himself that he spoke to a mixed audience ; 
and then he paid a glowing tribute to the influence 
of woman, and demanded fair play for her. ' 'I never 
heard a man wish he were a woman," he said, and 
then added sorrowfully, "I have heard many women 
wish they were men." A few young men tittered at 
this, whereupon he leaned forward and said slowly 
and impressively, "Shame upon a civilization that 
makes a woman feel that she has a grudge against 
God for her sex!" And again he says : "You can't 
win a case by singing hymns to the jury, or pro- 
nouncing a benediction on the judge. You must 
produce the evidence, which is your vote." 

WORDS ABOUT WOMEN. 



yyCCORDING to "A True Republic,'' Thomas 
I 1 A. Edison declares that women have more 
" quickness and insight into machinery than 

men have, and he prefers to employ them in carry- 
ing out the details of his electrical inventions. He 
is credited with saying that "Women have more sense 
about machinery in a minute than men have in a life- 
time," and he shows his faith in them by keeping 
200 women on his pay-roll. 

Two women, Misses Alice T. Wright and Eliza D. 
Seymore, of New Haven, out of curiosity took the 



184 FEMALE FILOSOKY. 

Yale examinations last fall, and surpassed art least 
seventy per cent, of the young men. And most of the 
fellowships of the Chicago University last year were 
held by women. 

The woman who invented the clothes-pin started a 
manufacturing establishment that sold for more than 
would purchase the whole machine shop where her 
husband had worked as a day laborer for twelve 
years. It is a wonder that he did not have the pat- 
ent taken out in his own name. Many men do that, 
and don't even say, "See what Betty and me did," 
but "see what I did." In the case referred to above, 
which should control the property and cast the bal- 
lot? Which manifested the brain power? 

"Go to my office, sit in my place, and do my work 
until my debts are paid," were the dying words of 
Mr. Frank Leslie to his wife. He had already macUj 
an assignment. She sat at her desk like a Napoleon 
over his war maps. She was left with a debt of 
$50,000 confronting her, and paid off the last dol- 
lar. No other woman has ever illustrated feminine 
executiveness and capabilities better than she. And 
yet "She's nothing but a woman." As merchants, 
physicians, attorneys, professors and workers in 
whatever professions or business they have entered, 
they have proven themselves equal in every respect 
to their male companions. But no matter what she 
has done, or can do, some men would say, "She's 
nothing but a woman." She is often referred to as 
agoese. "Such a goose ©f a thing to vote!" Very 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 185 

well, I am only your companion; what are you, 
then?" 

A little boy says a goose is the bravest thing 
in the world, because she would fight till she died 
for her goslings. But her companion will not always 
do that. Where is the justice of withholding from 
the goose the only weapon she could accomplish any- 
thing with, all because "She's nothing but a wo- 
man?" 

"The Beacon" says: "It now devolves upon the 
opponents of woman suffrage to show, not that wo- 
men are incompetent to vote, but that women, BE- 
CAUSE THEY ARE WOMEN, are incompetent to 
vote. It will not do to show that SOME women 
cannot exercise that right, or that ignorant women, 
or crazy women, or criminal women cannot safely 
exercise the right; for ignorance, insanity, etc., are 
not attributes of womanhood. Before the justice of 
our declaration can be questioned it must be proven 
that the fact of being a woman IN ITSELF makes 
it impossible for a citizen to exercise the right of 
suffrage without injury to the community. 

It will not do to present the argument on this 
question that the exercise of the right of suffrage by 
women would be injurious to themselves. While the 
talk on that subject has been of the most imbecile 
description, yet whether it be so or not do3s not ap- 
ply to this question. Women have an inherent right 
to the ballot. That right can only be interfered with 
on the ground that its exercise will interfere with 



186 FEMALE FIU)S0FY. 

the rights of others; whether its effect will be a 
detriment to themselves or not will be a question 
which each woman has a right to determine for her- 
self. The public has a right to protect itself, but 
it is not the business of the public to look after the 
private affairs of its citizens. 

It is argued that if women were allowed to exercise 
the right to vote they would spend their time in vot- 
ing, and the men would have to stay at home to rock 
the cradle and wash the dishes. This argument, with 
its force, clearness and logic, reminds us greatly of 
one of the stock of arguments in the sixties against 
giving the negro the right to vote. We were a Dem- 
ocrat in those days, but all the same believed that 
every citizen should have the right to vote on the 
same terms, but whenever we would get into an ar- 
gument with our Democratic friends on the princi- 
ples of the Declaration of Independence, and the 
doctrines laid down by Thomas Jefferson, we were 
always met by the absolutely incontrovertible and 
unanswerable argument, " Would you like to have 
your sister marry a nigger?" To this day we have 
not been able to observe the connection between the 
exercise of suffrage by the colored people and mis- 
cegenation. Our reply usually was, the right to vote 
did not confer upon any man the right to marry our 
sister. So we fail to discover any connection be- 
tween the exercise of suffrage by women and the 
washing of dishes and rocking of cradles by men. 
We have been exercising the right of suffrage for a 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 187 

quarter of a century, voting as often as the law would 
allow, but it has never taken as much time for us to 
go to the polls and cast our ballot as it does to go to 
market and buy provisions for dinner. Going to the 
polls is a duty that occurs but twice a year at the 
utmost, while going to market, which takes longer 
each time, occurs four times a week. As we have 
not been compelled to wash dishes and rock cradles 
because our wife goes to market four times a week, 
we presume that were she to go to the polls twice a 
year, the additional time required would not necessi- 
tate our abandoning our editorial duties. 

Women carry on the chief work of the church ; 
they go to prayer meeting, and missionary meeting, 
and class meeting, and working society meeting, and 
get up socials to pay the church debt, and get up 
entertainments to buy the church carpet, and can go 
around the community soliciting funds to pay the 
preacher's salary — they can do all this ; they DO 
do all this ; they have been doing all this for a hun- 
dred years or more, and it has not yet resulted in men 
rocking the cradle or washing the dishes. We would 
suggest as a happy compromise for those who are 
troubled in this matter that instead of rocking the 
cradle and washing the dishes all the year round, the 
men should agree, if it be found necessary to secure 
time for the women to go to the polls, to take their 
wives' places at pray er meeting, two meetings a year, 
which would more than compensate for the time re- 
quired by their wives' political duties," 



188 FEMALE FILOSOKY. 



EMINENT OPINIONS ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 



IN the administration of a State, neither a wo- 
man as a woman, nor a man as a man, has any 
special functions, but the gifts are equally dif- 
fused in both sexes. — Plato. 

I go for all sharing ths privileges of the govern- 
ment who assist in bearing its burdens, by no means 
excluding women. — Abraham Lincoln. 

In the progress of civilization, woman suffrage is 
sure to come. — Chas. Sumner. 

Justice is on the side of woman suffrage. — William 
H. Seward. 

I think that there will be no end to the good that 
will come of woman's suffrage, on the [elected, on 
elections, on government, and on woman herself.— 
Chief -Justice Chase. 

Woman's suffrage is undoubtedly coming, and I, 
for one, expect a great deal of good to result from 
it. — Henry W. Longfellow. 

For over forty years I have not hesitated to declare 
my conviction that justice and fair dealing, and the 
democratic principles of our government, demand 
equal rights and privileges of citizenship, irrespec- 
tive of sex. I have not been able to see any good 
reason for denying the ballot to women.— J, G.Whit- 
tier, 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 189 

I take it Americans never gave any better princi- 
ples to the world than the safety of letting every 
human being have the power of protection in his own 
hands. I claim it for women. The moment she has 
the ballot I shall think the cause is won. — Wendall 
Phillips. 

You ask my reasons for believing in woman's suf- 
frage. It seems to me almost self-evident, an axiom, 
that every house-holder and tax-payer ought to have 
a voice in the expenditure of the money we pay, in- 
cluding, as this does, interests the most vital to a 
human being.— Florence Nightingale. 

To have a voice in choosing those by whom one is 
governed is a means of self-protection due to every 
one. Under whatever conditions, and within what- 
ever limits, men are admitted to the suffrage, there 
is not a shadow of justification for not admitting 
women under the same. — John Stuart Mills. 

Suppose, for the sake of argument, we accept the 
inequality of the sexes as one of nature's immutable 
laws ; call it a fact that women are inferior to men 
in mind, morsris and physique. Why should this set- 
tle or materially affect the subject of so-called wo- 
man's rights? Would not this very inferiority be a 
reason why every advantage should be given to the 
weaker sex, not only for its own good, but for the 
highest development of the race? — Huxley. 

I am in favor of woman suffrage.— Phillips Brooks. 



190 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

With all my head, and with all my heart, I believe 
in woman suffrage, — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

It is very cheap wit that finds it so droll that wo- 
man should vote. If the wants, the passions, the 
vices, are allowed a full vote, through the hands of a 
half -brutal, intemperate population, I think it but 
fair that the virtues, the aspirations, should be al- 
lowed a full voice as an offset through the purest of 
the people. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

The correct principle is that women are not only 
justified, but exhibit the most exalted virtue, when 
they enter on the concerns of their country, of hu- 
manity, and of their God.— John Quincy Adams. 

I am highly gratified with the late demonstration 
in the Senate on the question of female suffrage. — 
Hon. George W. Julian. 

When we seriously attempt to show that a woman 
who pays taxes ought not to have a voice in the man- 
ner in which the taxes are expended, that a woman 
whose property, and liberty, and person are controlled 
by the laws should have no voice in framing those 
laws, it is not easy. If women are fit to rule in mon- 
archies, it is difficult to say why they are not quali- 
fied to vote in a republic— Hon. A. B. Anthony, of 
Rhode Island. 

If prayer and womanly influence are doing so 
much for God by indirect methods, how shall it be 



FEMALE 'FII.OSOFY. 191 

when that electric force is brought to bear through 
the battery of the ballot-box? — Francis E. Willard. 

Laugh as we may, put it aside as a jest if we will, 
keep it ought of Congress or political campaigns, 
still, the woman question is rising on our horizon 
larger than the size of a man's hand; and some so- 
lution, ere long, that question must find.— Jas. A. 
Garfield. 

The true family is the type of the State. It i« the 
absence of the feminine from the conduct of the 
governments of the earth that makes them more or 
less savage. The State is now in a condition of half 
orphanage. There are fathers of the State, but no 
mothers.— Rev. Samuel J. May. 

Just as woman in literature, both as authoress and 
as audience, has effected a radical reform, all elim- 
ination of the obscenity and harshness from litera- 
ture and art, so woman in the State will avail to 
eliminate the rigors of law, and much of the cor- 
ruption in politics that now prevails. — Prof .Wm. T. 
Harris. 

If the principle on which we founded our govern- 
ment is true, that taxation must not be without rep- 
resentation, and if women hold property and are 
taxed, it follows that women should be represented 
in the State by their votes. I think the State can 
no more afford to dispense with the votes of women 
in its affairs than the family. — Harriet Beecher 
Stowe! 



192 FEMALE FlI*OSO£V. 

And I do not ask this for woman's sake. My plea 
is not for woman; my plea is for man. We need an 
enlarged sphere for women. The world, human so- 
ciety, man's own comfort (if it be brought to the 
basis of a selfish calculation), every material inter- 
est of human life, demands that man and woman 
should be united, as much in intellectual as in so- 
cial, in civil affairs as much as in personal, in public 
as mueh as in private interests. Men rob themselves 
and society by prohibiting woman from doing things 
which she is able to do, and fitted to do. — Henry 
Ward Beecher. 

When you were weak and I was strong, I toiled 
for you. Now you are strong and I am weak. Be- 
cause of my work for you, I ask your aid. I ask 
the ballot for myself and my sex. As I stood by 
you, I pray you stand by me and mine. — Clara Bar- 
ton to the Soldiers. 

Voting would increase the intelligence of women, 
and be a powerful stimulus to female education. It 
would enable women to protect their own industrial, 
social, moral and educational rights. Woman's vote 
would be to the vices in our great cities what the 
lightning is to the oak. I believe that this reform 
is coming, and that it will come to stay. — Joseph 
Cook. 

I leave it to others to speak of suffrage as a right 
ora privilege; I speak of it as a duty. What right, 
have you women to leave all this work of caring for 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 193 

the country with men? Is it not your country as 
well as theirs? Are not your children to live in it 
after you are gone? And are you not bound to con- 
tribute whatever faculties God has given you to make 
it and keep it a pure, safe and happy land?— James 
Freeman Clark. 

One principal cause of the failure of so many mag- 
nificent schemes, social, political, religious, which 
have followed each other age after age, have been 
this : that in almost every case they ignored the 
rights and powers of one-half the human race — viz., 
women. I believe that politics will not go right, 
that nothing human will ever go right, except in so 
far as woman goes right; and to make woman go 
right she must be put in her place and she must have 
her rights. — Charles Kingsley. 

Everybody feels the justice of the Golden Rule, 
Do unto others as you would have others do unto 
you. Would men have women rob them of their 
ballot? No. Then let not men rob women of their 
ballot. This is the Golden Rule put into practical 
form. — Rev Dr. David Gregg. 

I have never seen an argument against woman 
suffrage that was not flimsy. Men are much dis- 
posed to exaggerate the difficulties of voting intelli- 
gently when they talk of women voting. By the 
time a public question is ready for the popular vote, 
it has become a very simple question, that requires 
little more than honesty and common sense to vote 

12 



194 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

upon it. If our mothers are not fit to vote, they 
ought to stop bearing sons? — Geo. W. Cable. 

A woman may vote as a stockholder upon a road 
from one end of the country to the other. But if 
she sells her stock and buys a house with the money 
she has no voice in the laying out of the road before 
her door, which her house is taxed to keep and pay 
for. Why, in the name of good sense, if a responsi- 
ble human being may vote upon specific industrial 
projects, she may not vote upon the industrial regu- 
lation of the State. — George William Curtis. 

I believe that the great vices in our large cities 
will never be conquered until the ballot is put in the 
hands of women. — Bishop Simpson. 

In view of the terrible corruption of our politics, 
people ask, can we maintain universal suffrage? I 
say no, not without the aid of women. — Bishop Gil- 
bert Haven. 

We have driven our leading opponents from one 
position to another, until there is not a thoughtful 
opponent of woman suffrage to be found who is not 
obliged to deny the doctrine which is affirmed in our 
Declaration of Independence. — Geo. F. Hoar. 

I have not found a respectable reason why women 
should not vote, although I have read almost every, 
thing that has been written on the subject, on both 
sides. — M. J. Savage. 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 195 

Every argument that can be adduced to prove that 
males should have the right to vote, applies with 
equal force to prove that females should possess the 
same right. — Hon. Beuj. F. Wade. 

We used to ask for suffrage because women needed 
it as the means to larger opportunities. But the as- 
pect of the woman question has changed. Women 
are now saying, as in the days of the war, * 'The 
country needs us." — Mary A. Livermore. 

John Stuart Mill said that wherever he found an 
Indian province especially well governed, he usually 
found that a woman was the governor. Look at the 
famous queens of modern times ; Elizabeth of En- 
gland ; Maria Theresa of Hungary, Isabella of Castile ; 
Victoria. With three or four exceptions, every de- 
cent sovereign in Europe since the dark ages has 
been a woman. Even the sensual Catharine of Rus- 
sia will compare very favorably with most of the ru- 
lers of her race. 

Chief -Justice Green, Seattle, Washington, says: 
"The practical working of joint suffrage has devel- 
oped very definitely the lines between its supporters 
and its opposers : First and chief, that immoral ele- 
ment which is, the world over, sustained by the drink- 
ing-saloon, the gambling- house, and the brothel ; sec- 
ond, a much smaller element, the high-toned class 
which finds its delight in the frivolities of fashion- 
able life ; and third, a small but eminently re- 
spectable element, that is bound by traditional no- 



196 FEMALE FILOSOEY, 

tions of man's superiority and woman's spher«, and 
seems unable to open its eyes or get its head straight, 
or go, and lies curled up upon itself, altogether like 
a chick in an egg-shell which ought to hatch, but 
doesn't. To the last element belong those which think 
they read in the Bible a divine right of man to rule 
woman." 

Hon. L. G. Adams, Secretary of the Kansas State 
Historical Society, said : "As the election came on, 
there were comments upon the orderly and quiet 
character of the elections ; there was no dissent from 
the testimony on this point ; comments upon the un- 
expectedly large vote of women ; upon the healthy 
influence of their presence in banishing riot and dis- 
order from the polling-places; remarks upon the 
courtesies everywhere extended the lady voters — al- 
ways spoken of as ladies ; statements of how the men 
of all races vied in activity in escorting the ladies to 
the polls in carriages ; how the ladies came often 
accompanied by their husbands, sometimes singly ; 
sometimes in groups ; quietly deposited their votes 
and returned as quietly to their homes ; how some- 
times they came by scores and fifties frem points of 
assemblage, and in some instances from churches 
where they had met and prayed together before com- 
ing ; the reading of these newspaper statements and 
the comments upon the incidents of this election — 
thsse all have impressed me with the conviction that 
the half of the lesson taught would not be made ap- 
parent by a mere exhibition of the numerical results. 



Female filosoEy. 197 

*The figures, though potent and essential, are but the 
skeleton, the outline, and the newspaper reports, dis- 
cussions and comments should be embodied with 

them." 

Russell Sage, millionaire and financier, says in Dem- 
orest's Magazine for January: "I believe when 
women vote we shall have wiser government, clearer 
politics, more ballots, and fewer bullets. I have not 
formulated my views as to what reforms woman suf- 
frage would effect, but I fancy good would accrue, 
not only to women, but to men. When men and 
women labor together there is compactness, complete- 
ness, thoroughness in the result that is often wanting 
when the sexes work separately. If men have expe- 
rience women have insight; if men use logic and 
reason, women use instinct and intuition ; if men are 
hasty, cruel, brutal, women are diplomatic, merciful, 
refined. Combine these qualities and you have a 
unit that approaches perfection. Women look at 
suffrage through the spectacles of morality and spir- 
ituality; but, men, being more practical, very nat- 
urally see the question from a material, a financial 
point of view. As for myself, I do not believe that 
the ballot of women would bring about any radical 
reform of the code of ethics which now governs finan- 
ciering—at least not for a long time. For the aver- 
age woman, and this 1 say with much deference, is 
seldom as successful in business as her male escort, 
because woman is usually more generous than man. 
Yet women are remarkably far-sighted in business 



198 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

matters, and doubtless many of the immense fortunes 
made by men are largeiy due to the counsel of wo- 
men possessing the characteristics which I have 
named." 

"I have seen the error of my ways. That is, I 
think that times have changed. The position of wo- 
man has changed. Woman herself is different in 
some respects from what she used to be. . . .1 think 
the beginning of my change of opinion was in Wyom- 
ing a few years ago. I was travelling through the 
State, and met a great many very prominent men. I 
asked them about the workings of woman suffrage. 
I heard of nothing but praise for it. I found that 
my old ideas about all the bad things which would 
happen if women voted were unfounded. I think 
she has a just right to the suffrage, and to enfranchise 
her will do her good rather than harm, and I signed 
the petition. 1 ' — Chauncey Depew. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 199 

HOW IT WORKS WHERE TRIED. 



THE editor of the Rawlins (Wy.) Journal, un- 
der date of March 3, 1884, writes as follows 
to one of the editors of the Woman's Journal : 

"Dear Madam : Woman suffrage has elevated po- 
litics, has a beneficial influence in the way of tem- 
perance, and makes our elections as quiet as a Sun- 
day school. If the question of woman suffrage were 
to-day left to a vote of the people of the Territory, 
four out of five would vote for its continuance ; and 
among the best people there is not to exceed one in 
fifty who is not in favor of it. Woman suffrage is 
very popular. There has been no opposition to it 
since the first year, and the men who opposed it then 
are among its warmest supporters now — the writer 
among the number. JOHN C. FRIEND." 

Dr. T. H. Hay ford, editor of the Laramie City 
Sentinel, March 3, 1884, writes: 

"Dear Madam : I have been a continuous resi- 
dent ever since before its organization ; have been 
six years auditor of the Territory, seven years post- 
master of this city, and fifteen years editor of the 
Laramie 'Sentinel.' After fifteen years of woman 
suffrage here, I do not know of a person in the Ter- 
ritory who does not most heartily endorse its results, 
and I do not think one could be found who would 
consent to its repeal, unless it be some one who be- 
longs to that class who do not want to see good laws 
faithfully executed." 



200 FEMALE KII.OSOFY. 

After 20 years experience with woman suffrage it 
was left to the men to vote whether it was satisfac- 
tory or not. They voted 8 to 1 to put it in the Con- 
stitution when admitted into the Union, and ever 
since they vote andhold office there on the same con- 
ditions as men. 

The editor of the New York "Observer" was op- 
posed to woman suffrage. He wanted some strong 
testimony against it, and wrote to a lady of his ac- 
quaintance in Wyoming, the wife of a United States 
Judge, and a leading member of the Presbyterian 
church, asking her to write an account of thepracti- 
cal workings of woman suffrage for his paper. She 
replied : 

"I came to Wyoming three years ago from Mis- 
souri, and brought with me fully the usual amount 
of conservatism ; and I regarded with peculiar suspi- 
cion the idea of woman's entering the political arena. 
My observations have materially modified my views 
upon this subject. The women are less governed by 
party considerations than men, and both political 
parties have come to recognize the necessity of nom- 
inating their best men, or at least not nominating 
bad men, if they desire to succeed. The only ele- 
ment that would desire its repeal is the vicious and 
corrupt.' ' 

The Speaker of the Wyoming House of Represent- 
atives said in 1879 : 

" I came to this Territory, in the fall of 1871, with 
the strongest prejudice possible against woman suf- 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 201 

frage. The more I have seen of it, the less my ob- 
jections have been realized, and the more it has com- 
mended itself to my judgment and good opinion. 
Under all my observations it has worked well, and 
has been productive of much good. The women use 
the ballot with more independence and discrimination 
in regard to the qualifications of candidates than men 
do. If the ballot in the hand of women compels po- 
litical parties to place their best men in nomination, 
this, in and of itself, is a sufficient reason for sustain- 
ing woman suffrage." 

16 But there is another qualm you ha^e in regard to 
giving this crowning liberty to your sister, which 
shall raise her at once from the level of the idiot, the 
lunatic and the criminal. For think, my brothers 
these are the unfortunates by whom you place us, in 
withholding from us the right of expression at the 
ballot-box. 'Negro women will be rushing to the 
polls,' you fear. How easy to tide over that danger. 
Give us suffrage with an educational qualification, or, 
if you will, a property qualification. With the for- 
mer you would at once add 76,000 educated white 
women to your 96,000 educated white men voters 
and settle the vexed question of white supremacy by 
a majority of 54,000 over the 118,000 colored voters 
of South Carolina." 

Here are the resolutions that the State Legislature 
of Wyoming passed on February 16, 1893 : 

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of Wyoming, 
That the possession and exercise of suffrage by the 



202 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

women of Wyoming for the past quarter of a cen- 
tury has wrought no harm and has done great good* 
in many ways ; that it has largely aided in banishing 
crime, pauperism and vice from this State, and that 
too without any violent or oppressive legislation ; that 
it has secured peaceful and orderly elections, good 
government, and a remarkable degree of civilization 
and public order, and we point with pride to the fact 
that after nearly twenty-five years of woman suffrage, 
not one county in Wyoming has a poor-house, that 
our jails are almost empty, and crime, except that 
by strangers in the State, is almost unknown, and as 
the result of experience we urge every civilized com- 
munity on the earth to enfranchise its women without 
delay. 

Resolved, That an authenticated copy of these res- 
olutions be forwarded by the Governor of the State 
to the Legislature of every State and Territory of 
this country and every legislative body in the world ; 
and that we request the press throughout the civilized 
world to call the attention of their readers to these 
resolutions." 

Iceland has a population of 73,000 in which men 
and women are political equals. Men and women 
vote together. These voting mothers 'have produced 
a nation in which there are no prisons, no police, no 
thieves, no army, no very rich, no very poor, but plain, 
temperate, educated, intelligent people. The future 
citizens are taught by their mothers, and in the 
whole island not a single illiterate person is to be 



FEMALE ElLOSOEY. 203 

found, every child being able to read, write and 
cipher by the time it is seven years old. Since such 
is the practical working of full woman surage in 
Iceland why should men fear it in our country. 

A movement is now on foot to make them members of 
the National Assembly of Parliament. Does it seem 
possible that the women of faraway little Iceland are 
so far ahead of us in political privileges? Yet such 
is the case. How long are they to remain ahead. 

In the last election in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, 
Kentucky and New York women were powerful polit- 
ical factors, turning the elections in favor of good 
government. 

In the Woman's Calendar for 1891 appeared a sug- 
gestive picture : A peasant of the middle ages, with a 
primitive plow of that dawning civilization, drawn 
by a woman and a milk cow ; above appeared the face 
of Miss Fawcett, who surpassed the senior wrang- 
ler. 

ITS POPULARITY. 



MRS. BRIGGS- WALL, who was the daily com- 
panion of her group, "American Woman and 
Her Political Peers" for many months at the 
World's Fair, writes : "It does seem as if fully seven- 
tenths of the elderly and nine-tenths of the younger 
people are decided equal suffragists. This sentiment 
must have spread like wild-fire. An occasional op- 
ponent passes by, and it has almost become refresh- 
ing to hear his objections, antiquated and unsound 



204 #EMAtE FlLOSOFY. 

as they are. Thousands of Kansans have remarked 
with great earnestness that 'Kansas women will have 
THEIR full freedom in 1894. * * One gentleman, 
who has been three times Governor of his own State, 
said he came to the Kansas building purposely to 
order one of the photographs of this group. H© 
would go home, go on the platform with his photo- 
graph in his hand and would work to get women out 
of that company. 

Legal journals in this and foreign countries have 
asked the use of the group for reproduction. But 
photographs only can be secured at present. 

Not long ago woman suffrage was despised and 
rejected of men. The Prohibition party picked up 
the ugly, despised, forlorn, friendless female, and 
have ever since been unswervingly advocating a bet- 
ter treatment of her, notwithstanding her unpopu- 
larity. (They are always advocating something that 
is unpopular.) And now where is the political party 
that dares to oppose her fast growing popularity? 
The Democrats are trying to flirt with ner. The Re- 
publicans came near being introduced to her at the 
Ohio State Convention in Columbus, June, '93. The 
people's party actually kept company with her dur- 
ing the campaign of *93. But the Prohibitionists 
married her long ago, and she who was ugly and 
hated at first is becoming more popular, beautiful 
and lovely every day because, "She's nothing but a 
woman." 



FEMALK FILOSOFY. 205 

The Equal Suffrage Association of Denver, Colo- 
rado, met the next day after the election that decided 
in favor of woman surage in Colorado, and passed 
resolutions thanking the leading Republican and 
Populist papers, the Trades unions and the ministers 
for help rendered during the campaign. The resolu- 
tion to the ministers reads as follows : "We thank 
the churches of this city. There is hardly a minister 
of prominence who has not nobly aided the cause of 
woman's rights from the pulpit." 

We have before us the opinions of over forty noted 
clergymen of nearly every important denomination 
in existence who have had any experience with wo- 
man suffrage and they are unanimously in favor 
of it. 

Rev. James Freeman Clark says: "It is some- 
times assumed that fighting, bullying and grumbling 
are the natural concomitants of voting. But why so ? 
In a hundred thousand country towns men go to vote 
every year as orderly and quietly as they go to 
church. Have we not enough skill in this Yankee 
nation to contrive a way for women to vote without 
their being ill-treated? Hitherto, wherever woman 
has gone she has introduced order, civility, good be- 
havior. Greece was the advanced country of the 
earth in civilization when Christianity arrived. 
There, respectable women were confined to their 
houses and were not seen abroad. To the Greek it 
would have seemed dangerous to hear of women 
walking in Washington street, riding in horse-cars, 



206 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

going to churches and theaters. But their advent ha» 
introduced civility into the streets, the horse-cars, the 
theaters; and so, in the future, it will introduce ci- 
vility at the polls. Every terrible prediction which 
men now utter of the bad effect on women voting, 
would be to-day made in all Mohammedan countries 
if it was proposed to let women walk unveiled in the 
streets. It would be argued that it was the nature of 
women to stay at home ; that all modesty would dis- 
appear if her face was seen in public ; that she would 
become loud voiced, rude, vulgar, if she talked fa- 
miliarly with the men in public assemblies, and sat 
by the side of strangers with uncovered face. It 
would be said that her indirect, unseen influence on 
society through her husband and sons was far greater 
and better than she could exert directly. How many 
Mohammedan predictions would be_ made of the 
awful consequences to women of leaving off her thick 
veil ! Her f emenine grace would disappear. And yet 
I do not suppose that our ladies, who are seen every- 
where in public, are any less feminine, refined and 
pure, than the women of Egyptian and Turkish 
harems. 

According to the Christian idea, men and women 
are to act together, in all industries, all arts, all lit- 
erature; in the church, the home, and the State. 
'What God has joined together, let not man put 
asunder.' Man's nature and woman's nature will al- 
ways remain different, but because different, comple- 
mentary ; each supplying what the other needs. There 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 207 

are three ways of treating women; the savage way, 
which makes her a slave and drudge; the Asiatic 
way, which makes her an ornament and plaything; 
and the Christian way, which makes her a compan- 
ion and fellow worker with man in all things. In 
Christ Jesus 'there is neither male nor female.' Let 
us not be afraid of carrying out this Christian prin- 
ciple to its ultimate results. The results will be that 
woman will become more truly womanly, more re- 
fined, because better satisfied, and more fully un- 
folded. Society will become more pure, the State 
more virtuous, the people happier and better." 

There were at least 13 women candidates for State 
School Commissioner at the last election in the dif- 
ferent States ; 12 for the State Legislature ; 7 for 
University Trustees ; 2 for Lieutenant Governor ; 1 
each for State Senator, State Treasurer, Reporter of 
Supreme Court, and U. S. Congress. They were nom- 
inated and endorsed by Prohibitionists, Populists, 
Democrats and Republicans. Three women, Mas. 
Clara Cressingham, Mrs. Frances Klock and Mrs. 
Carrie Clyde Holly, were elected to the Legislature 
in Colorado at the last election, Nov. 6th, 1894. 

In the campaign of '94 in twelve States woman suf- 
frage was adopted, women nominated or endorsed 
as State candidates by the different parties as fol- 
lows : 

All parties in Colorado and Wyoming; Kansas, 
Populist and Prohibition; Illinois, Prohibition, 
Democrat and Republican; North Dakota, Populist, 



208 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

Prohibition and Republican; Nebraska, Populist; 
Missouri, Prohibition, Populist and Democrat; Cal- 
ifornia, Prohibition, Populist and Republican ; Mon- 
tana, Populist, Prohibition and Democrat; Idaho, 
Republican; Utah, Populist, Democrat and Repub- 
lican. ■ 

New York Democrats adopted woman's suffrage 
plank in '93. The National Convention of Repub- 
lican Leagues have two years in succession adopt- 
ed it, and recommended it to all Republican clubs in 
the United States. 

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IS COMING. 



y J LEXANDER DUMAS says: "It (woman 
I I suffrage) will at first make a sensation, then 
* it will become fashionable, after that a habit, 

then an experience, then a duty, and at last a bless- 
ing." 

Years ago, Henery Watterson-- said : "Woman 
suffrage will come, if ever, on a wave of popular 
discontent. With 50,000 Democratic majority in Ken- 
tucky and 50,000 Republican majority in Massachus- 
etts, you cannot hope to succeed, because people are 
noji satisfied with the status quo*." In Colorado man's 
extremity has been woman's opportunity. The Pop. 
ulist uprising has broken the party machines, and 
ideal justice has come to* the front. 

The strong support given to woman suffrage by the 
clergy is a significant straw. Forty years ago it was 



FEMALE F1XOSOEY. 209 

the exceptional clergyman who upheld it. To-day- 
it is the exceptional clergyman who opposes it. The 
principles of the movement have not changed, but the 
churchmen have become more enlightened, more 
receptive to the great fundamental truth embodied 
in the declaration : "There is neither Jew nor Greek, 
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." 

At the Cleveland, (Dec.) monthly preachers' meet- 
ing, the Executive Committee reported that they 
could find no one to take the negative in the proposed 
discussion, "Should Women Vote?' 'all of them being 
in favor of them voting. 

The matter was brought very favorobly before the 
last Congress and received a strong support, but was 
defeated. But the defeat showed there was very 
great progress made during the last few years. 

Rev. Chas. G. Ames, at the New England Woman 
suffrage festival said : 

"I have one faculty of great value, for which my 
friends have never given me fall credit. I can hold 
my ear down to an egg and hear the cock flop his 
wings and crow. I believe there is more coming in 
this world, more good on the way, than we think ; 
and that the American eagle is sometime going to 
fly with both wings. It will be a good thing for the 
wings, and a great thing for the bird. Viva the 
eagle, and both of the wings attached thereto! We 
must work on long lines, and by broad methods, for 
great things, and the greatest thing is not govern- 

13 



210 FKMAI.E FILOSOFY. 

ment nor politics, but the humanity for which 
government and politics exist, if they have any jus- 
tification. And, looking toward the completeness of 
humanity, we should also work toward it. Two 
hundred and fity years ago Nathan Ward, who is 
described by the chronicler as a revered and judicious 
servant of Christ, who fixed his station in the town 
of Ipswich, on a fair and beautiful river, wrote a book, 
'The Cobbler of Agawam.' In it he said that * women, 
having but a few squirrel brains to help them, frisk 
about from one ill-favored fashion to another.' Some 
3,000 years earlier, a great king, who had a good 
right to report on the subject, said, 'One man among 
a thousand have I found, but a woman among all 
those have I not found.' There are other testimonies 
that come down from former times, when men were a 
little bolder to express their contempt of women than 
now, which show that during the long past the rela- 
tions between men and women, however necessary, 
have not been very satisfactory on either side, and if 
the returns were all in, they would doubtless make a 
very sad page of history. Since Nathan Ward wrote 
his book about the squirrel-brained women of New 
England of 250 years ago, women have learned the 
alphabet, which they then hardly had the command 
of, and it has been thought by men on the whole to 
be a good thing that women know how to read and 
write. The year In which I was born, — a gdod year 
for this country, — witnessed the admission of girls to 
the public schools of Boston on the same terms with 



— — — 



FEMALE FlLOSOEY. 211 

boys ; and Boston, on the whole, though timid about 
entering on such a rash innovation, would probably 
be disinclined to return to the old order of things, 
which gave to girls an inferior course of instruction 
to that assigned to boys. Well, those were steps in 
our direction. Many more steps have been taken in 
that direction, and all that has ever been gained by 
concessions to the rights of women, literary or edu- 
cational, and in the practical field of labor and 
employment, and by the popular provisions of law, 
though gained with great resistance, and through 
much opposition, is looked on by the mass of men 
who belong to that class that once would have re- 
sisted it as being, on the whole, good. If you would 
reform a man, if you would civilize a man, we are 
told you must begin with the grandmother. We 
propose to begin with the grandmothers of the people 
who will be here in the middle of the twentieth cen- 
tury, and it is none too early to begin to work on 
those long lines, by these broad methods, for those 
large results. 

It is Guyot who says that plants have three periods 
of growth. The slowest and longest is that of the 
root ; the next fastest is that of the stem, and the 
last and quickest is that of the blossom and fruit. 
We have been wont to think that the world grew by 
the root till the advent of Christ ; that from the ad- 
vent of Christ to our day, it has been growing by the 
stem ; and that in the period in which we stand it is 
growing by the blossom and the fruit* Changes that 






212 FEMALE EILOSOFV. 

formerly required a hundred years for accomplish- 
ment, now require scarcely a score. Things rush to 
their accomplishment. And we make our plea in 
behalf of women, not without hope that we may, ere 
long, see great improvement in her condition." 

Persons who are grossly ignorant on the woman 
suffrage question ask : 'Do you think women will 
ever get the suffrage?' And yet every intelligent 
observer of human affairs knows that the women 
have the suffrage already in countries representing 
19,000,000 square miles of territory, and a popula- 
tion of 354,000,000. 

And yet some people are ever asking, 'Do you 
think women will ever get the suffrage?' The world 
keeps moving while they neglect to inform them- 
selves. They wonder if something is coming which, 
to a large extent, has already come. 

[For the places in which woman suffrage prevails, 
see a future chapter on "Progress by States, Terri- 
tories and Countries."] 

Scarcely a State or Territory in the United States 
that has not legislated on the question already. And 
there is no other reform movement keeping pace with 
this one, and none has ever made such progress as 
this during the last seven years. 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 213 

LECTURE ON WOMAN'S RIGHTS. 

BY A WOMAN. 

Political history proves — 

Be it Hebrew, Grecian or Roman — 
That man is unfitted to rule, 

When he tries it unaided by woman. 
Great Empires have fallen to ruin, 

Broad Republics have gone to decay, 
Because, in their councils of state, 

Egotistical man held the sway. 

To preach these political truths, 

And gain for them just recognition 
At the hands of Columbia's sons, 

Is the aim of my highest ambition, 
And if, in fulfilling this role, 

I am forced to allude to man's weakness, 
These allusions I hope you'll receive, 
With man's philosophical meekness. 

You style yourselves " Lords of Creation," 

(Vain creatures! I will not call you fools, 
Had you woman's perception you'd know 

You were used by us merely as tools.) 
On what grounds are you claiming to be 

Superior to us, I would ask? 
We'll examine this matter and see; 

It's not such a difficult task, 



214 FEMALE FILOSOKY. 

First, you boast of your mental endowments, 

And prate of your reasoning powers, 
And fool yourselves into believing 

Your mind's superior to ours; 
While history for ages has proven— 

Aye ! and will prove it at every turn — 
When man tries to outwit a woman 

His fingers he's certain to burn. 

Then you boast of your genius constructive, 

Your mechanical skill, and all that, 
Pshaw! there isn't a man in this crowd 

That could rig up a woman's spring hat. 
Your telegraphs, railroads and bridges, 

Your printing machines and your presses, 
Don't display the refinements of skill 

That we do in making our dresses. 

You excel in physical strength, 

But strength is an ignoble feature. 
The mule is far stronger than man is ; 

Is he therefore a more noble creature? 
No ! no ! that mind should govern muscle 

Is a part of Dame Nature's great plan. 
The strong brute must to man's mind submit, 

Therefore woman should rule over man. 

It's not my intention to marry, 

But if into a marriage I'm fooled, 
That man may instruct the Parnellites 



FEMALE FILOSOKY. 215 

On the blessings of being home-ruled. 
He'll learn that we women have genius, 

Ay ! genius that fits us for ruling ; 
And, mind you, he won't have to travel 

From home to acquire his schooling. 

In THAT home Nature's law will prevail, 

And woman will show she can govern. 
THERE, one man, at least, will discover 

Which sex Nature meant should be sovereign. 
And, if women can rule in her home, 

Is it not an illogical fate 
That she should' be silent, while brainless dud«s 

Have a voice in controlling the state ? 

When political progress assigns 

To woman her place at the helm, 
Then every nation and every clime 

Will point to this God-beloved realm. 
They'll point to Columbia, and ask 

Why she is earth's foremost nation? 
IJer sons then can answer, "Because 

She is ruled by the gems of creation." 

Political mountebanks seek 

Our Woman's Rights movement to smother, 
By claiming "The same hands must handle 

The ballot and bayonet together." 
They thus think to appeal to our fears, 

And our movement to drive from the field ; 



216 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

But our colors are nailed to the mast, 
And Columbia's daughters won't yield. 

None but fools would assert that we women 

Fear death by sword, bayonet or ball. 
We dislike the effects of burnt powder ; 

It would spoil our complexions — that's all. 
But the aid we could render in war 

Would be of more, value than fighting. 
At the helm of state we could stand, 

And there give instructions in writing. 

Thus our dear flag, of dual design 

A dual support would obtain. 
WE could flaunt its bright stars at the foe, 

YOU the consequent STRIPES could sustain, 
Thus, doubly supported, how proudly 

4 'Old Glory" would float on the breeze ; 
And tyranny, all the world over 

Bet ore us would fall to its knees. 

Give woman admission to Congress, 

And she'll show you some wise legislation. 
She won't go there to fight for the spoils 

And re-tax an overtax nation. 
We lay claim to the President's chair, 

And in it you'll find we will be. 
If brave Belva DID fail to get there, 

Next time you can all vote for me. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 217 

WARNING— GET ON THE RIGHT SIDE. 



^/ I FEW years before steam railroads came into 
I 1 use the question of their possibility and im- 
* portance was often discussed in debating 

clubs. Many men were then as much prejudiced 
against steam railroads as they are now against wo- 
man suffrage. Their prejudice forms a cataract over 
their eyes so that they cannot see to the end of their 
noses. 

In 1828 a club of young men wanted the privilege 
of debating the Railroad question in the public school 
house of Lancaster, Ohio. The board's ignorance 
and prejudice will easily be recognized in the reply 
which they sent to the club. It reads as follows : 

"You are cheerfully welcome to the use of the 
school house to debate all proper questions in, but 
such things as railroads are impossibilities. There 
is nothing in the word of God about them. If God 
had designed that His intelligent creatures should 
travel at the frightful speed of fifteen miles per hour 
by steam, He would clearly have foretold it through 
His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead 
immortal souls down to hell." 

The farmers of Pennsylvania declared that by 
superseding horses, railroads would destroy their 
market for hay ; fishermen of the Potomac bemoaned 
the first steamer that came purling into view, lest it 
frighten all the fish ; Dr. Lardner, one of England's 
ablest scientists, put forth a book to prove that Rob- 



218 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

ert Fulton was a lunatic, and the first copy wa« 
brought over on Fulton's first steamship voyage. 

The late Prof. Bishop, of St. Petersburg, was a 
violent opponent of woman suffrage, his chief argu- 
ment against it being that the average weight of 
a man's brain was 1,350 grams, while that of a 
woman's was only 1,250. When his own brain was 
weighed it was found to be five grains less in weight 
than what he declared to be the average for woman's 
brain. — Woman's Herald, (London.) 

Feelix does not pretend to be either a prophet or 
the son of a prophet. But he can discern the signs 
of the times. Two Irishmen were in jail. Pat had 
stolen a watch and Mike had stolen a cow. Mike 
thought to joke Pat a little, and said, "Pat, 
about what toime is it?" Pat replied, "I dinno can 
tell exactly, but I think its about mulkin' toime." 
And so the signs of the times indicate that it is 
about women's voting time. 

A prominent minister of Ann Arbor, Michigan, 
not long since preached a sermon against woman 
suffrage. His great concern seemed to be that the 
bad women would out-vote the good women. The 
Ann Arbor Democrat reviews the sermon, and calls 
attention to the fact that "there are so few bad wo- 
men, comparatively speaking, that, as a class, they 
never attempt to assert themselves in any public 
place of civil government whatever." The Dsmo- 
crat says the Eeverend's sermon carries little con- 
viction to his Uearers and proceeds to console him on 



.UHk 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 219 

this wise : "Be sure women will vote, the conserva- 
tives to the contrary notwithstanding; and when 
that does come, bad men and bad women will largely 
become a factor of forgotten history, while the pres- 
ent opponents of the cause will grasp the hand of the 
pioneer, and prondly exclaim, "we killed a bear, 
did 'nt we, Peggy?" 

The National Convention of the Republican 
Leagues, at Denver, June 27th, 1894, congratulated 
the women of Colorado and Wyoming on the posses- 
sion of the ballot, and cordially invited the women 
to help them to rescue the country from Democratic 
and Populist misrule. 

Those two parties pitched into the papers that 
printed the above and told them that they were the 
ones that brought about the ballot for the women, 
and claimed that they had a right to their votes. 
They all see the importance of saying "we did it." 
The men and parties who oppose them the strongest 
will likely be spotted by them when they do get the 
ballot. A man in Massachusetts, sometime ago, 
sent a check to help the Suffragists, and said, "I do 
not favor women voting, but J see it is coming and I 
might as well help it along." He may want an office 
some day. He acted wisely. It would be better for 
more men to do likewise. 

Ben. Hill, Georgia's great Senator, feared that 
America would be ruined if the negro was set free. 
He lived long enough to say that, "while once he 
would have given one life rather than have slavery 
abolished, he now would give ten lives rather than 
have it re-established." So the opponents of woman 
suffrage should learn from the past, 



220 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

Those who visited the encampment of the South 
Sea Islanders at the World's Fair, probably noticed 
a placard posted there by the managers which read 
thus : * 'Visitors will please refrain from asking these 
people any questions about Cannibalism, as it is 
very annoying to them to hear it spoken of." 
Doubtless our children's grand-children will be an- 
noyed by hearing of many of the practices of their 
ancestors. How will they enjoy having it thrown 
up to them that their grand-parents bought and sold 
men, women and children as if they were so many 
dumb animals ; dealt in lotteries, practiced Mor- 
monism, suppressed and oppressed women in their 
legal rights ; bought and sold suffrage and service at 
elections as so much butter and cheese— paying a 
price according to the strength ; used God's day for 
profit and pleasure; killed and ruined men, soul and 
body, with rum, and made many miserable widows 
and helpless orphans for a small tax or license 
fee? 

Are we not hastening with mighty strides towards 
the Millennial Dawn? Slavery has been suppressed, 
duelling done away with, lotteries outlawed; Mor- 
monism is on its last legs ; ballot reform has been 
inaugurated ; politics and the pools are being puri- 
fied. Several States have sexless suffrage and sev- 
eral more soon will have. Sabbath desecration is 
suffering from the attack of the reform forces. And 
the dawn of the twentieth century will see some of 
the greatest reforms the world has ever known. 






FEMALE tflLOSOFY. 221 

And many of the evils that men once thought and 
said had come to stay have gone and many more 
are flopping their wings and bobbing their heads to 
qick out a direction in which to sail. There is 
more mcney spent and more energy exerted to-day 
for good than ever before. And with the young 
people all over this land studying Christian Citi- 
zenship as a special work of the Christian Endeavor 
movement, and the W. C. T. U's., the Temperance 
Alliances and the Anti-Saloon Leagues of all parties 
and sects, the Prohibitionists, and the Christian 
churches that are fast getting awakened and 
alarmed and their consciences quickened and every- 
body saying, " something must be done," we will 
soon say to Satan and his imps who are trying to 
run this world to ruin, as said the old Quaker to the 
robber who broke into his house and disturbed his 
quiet slumbers. (The Quaker will not harm any 
one if he can get out of it in any way.) He quietly 
reached down under his bed and pulled out the old 
shot gun and slowing lifting it up into range with 
the intruder's body he said: "Friend I say to thee, 
thee had better move a little, for I intend to fire 
this gun just where thee stands." And "thee" 
moved . 



222 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

PROGRESS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE BY 
STATES AND GOVERNMENTS. 



THE countries of the world where women have 
some suffrage rights cover 19,000,000 square 
miles and has a population of 354,000,000. 

They have full suffrage in two States, Wyoming 
and Colorado, and six foreign countries, Iceland, 
Isles of Mann and Pitcairn, Jersey Islands, New 
Zealand and South Australia. They have partial suf- 
frage in thirty other States and nineteen other for- 
eign countries. 

The States that have partial suffrage and the time 
they received it are : Arizona '87, Connecticut '93, 
Delaware '89, Idaho '87, Illinois '91, Indiana ( ?) , Iowa 
'94, Kansas '87, Kentucky '45, Louisiana(?), Maine 
(?), Massachusetts '79, Michigan '75, Minnesota '75, 
Mississippi (?), Missouri (?), Montana '87, Nebraska 
'83,New Hampshire '78, New Jersey '87, NorthDakota 
'87,NewYork'89,Ohio'94, Oregon '78, Pennsylvania 
'89, South Dakota '87, Texas (?), Vermont '80, Wash- 
ington '86, Wisconsin '85. The degree of suffrage in 
the different States is as follows : 

School suffrage in various degrees is granted to 
women in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Dela- 
ware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mas- 
sachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New 
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, 
Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, 
Vermont, and Wisconsin. 







FEMAI.K] FILOSOFY. 223 

In Arkansas and Missouri women vote, by petition, 
on liquor license in many cases. 

In Delaware suffrage is exercised by women in 
several municipalities. 

In Kansas they have equal suffrage with men at all 
municipal elections. 

In Montana they vote on all local taxation. 

In New York they vote at school elections ; in many 
places on local improvements, such as gas and elec- 
tric street lighting, paving, sewerage, and municipal 
bonds. 

In Utah women voted until disfranchised by the 
" Edmunds Law," when they promptly organized to 
demand its repeal. 

In Pennsylvania a law was passed in 1869 under 
which women vote on local improvements by signing 
or refusing to sign petitions therefor. 

In Wyoming women have voted on the same terms 
with men since 1869. The Convention in 1889 to 
form a State Constitution unanimously inserted a pro- 
vision securing them full suffrage. This Constitution 
was ratified by the voters at a special election by 
about three-fourths majority. Congress refused to 
require the disfranchisement of women and admitted 
the State July 10, 1890. 

And in the Senate of the United States, February 
7, 1889, a select committee reported in favor of 
amending the Federal Constitution so as to forbid 
States to make sex a cause of disfranchisement. 
Congress adjourned, however, on March 4th follow- 
ing without reaching the subject. 



224 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

In Vermont, at the Constitutional Convention of 
1870 there was but one vote for women suffrage, and 
yet in 1893 a municipal bill passed the House 149 to 
83 and was lost in the Senate 10 to 8. 

West Virginia and Kentucky have granted women 
enlarged property rights, and New York unanimously 
made mothers and fathers equal guardians of their 
children. About three-fourths of a million people 
petitioned the New York Constitutional Convention 
to remove the barrier in the Constitution to women 
voting on an equality with men. Their opponents 
sent in only a few thousand names. 

Some one writes: "In Ontario last year, the 
Legislature passed a bill to allow women to practice 
law. In Nova Scotia, for the first time, a woman 
was elected a delegate to the Methodist Conference, 
and she was received with all the honors. In the 
Ontario Legislature, full Parliamentary suffrage for 
women was defeated last year by only three votes, 
and this year by only one vote. In Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick and Prince Edward's Island, there is not 
a village or hamlet, however remote, where woman suf- 
frage is not a live question with the women, and with 
the men, too, and they are mostly in favor. The 
farmers, the fishermen, the churches, and nearly all 
societies endorse it. Almost the only opposition 
comes from the fashionable 'society' set in the cities 
and small towns. We are gaining ground all the time. 
The Dominion W.C. T. U. stands for 'Women Con- 
tinually Troubling Us.' " 



FEMALE KILOSOFY. 225 



In Denmark , % a bill granting municipal suffrage 
to women lately passed the Folkething, or popular 
branch of the Danish Parliament, by a vote of 39 to 
13, but was defeated in the more conservative upper 
House, 25 to 12. 

And they should continue to trouble them until 
they are made politically as good as Dagoes and 
Dudes. 

In Austria the women have petitioned for full suf- 
frage. South Australia granted woman suffrage, 
in 1894, and Great Britain allowed women to vote 
for and sit on the Parish Councils, District Councils, 
and Vestries, marriage being no disqualification. 

In France, business women have been empowered 
to vote for Judges of the Tribunals of Commerce, 
and the British House of Commons has compelled 
the ministry to insert in the Parish Councils Bill a 
clause extending suffrage to women, both married 
and single. 

Miss Frances Willard says: "Equal suffrage is 
before the English Parliament to-day. English wo- 
men already have municipal ballot under conditions 
like men ; they vote in the parishes ; and I shouldn't 
wonder if the cable would flash the news within a 
few weeks of woman's privilege to vote for members 
of Parliament. Within five years we need not be sur- 
prised to hear of Lady Henry Somerset in the Cabi- 
net; and by it she will lose none of the womanliness 

for which we love her." 
14 



. 



226 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

The foreign countries where they have partial suf- 
frage are Austria, Hungary, Canada, Cape Colony, 
Croatia, Dalmatia, England, Finland, France, Hin- 
doostan (Madras and Bombay), Ireland, Italy, New 
Brunswick, Norway, Ontario, Prince Edward's 
Island, Russia, Scotland, Sweeden and Wales. 

The degree of suffrage is as follows in the order 
given above: (1) by proxy for all elective officers; 
(2 and 3) municipal suffrage ; (4 and 5) all elective 
officers ; (6) all except Parliament ; (7) — see 4 and 5 ; 
(8) teachers have school franchise; (9)— see 2 and 
3; (10)— see 6; (11) widows vote for Members of 
Parliament; (12) — see 6; (13) school suffrage; (14) 
all elective officers except to the Legislature and Par- 
liament; (15) — see 6; (16) householders vote for 
elective officers and on local matters ; (17) — see 6 ; 
(18) all elective officers, Representatives, and, indi- 
rectly, for Members of the House of Lords; (19) 
— see 6. 

ADVANCES ELSEWHERE. 

Full suffrage bills have been before the following 
Legislatures, with the results mentioned : 

A full suffrage amendment bill passed the assembly 
of both California and Arizona in February, '95. 

Both houses of Oregon have passed a similar bill. 

Submission in Iowa Senate was defeated February 
28th, 1894, by 26 to 20. 

Minnesota, passed House 31 to 19, and it came up 

in the Senate too late for action without suspending 

' the rules. A motion to suspend the rules was lost by 



FEMALE EILOSOFY, 227 

54 to 40, lacking a few votes of the required two- 
thirds. 

Nebraska, defeated in the House 76 to 42. A muni- 
cipal bill passed, but was indefinitely postponed in 
the Senate. 

New Mexico, passed by a large majority in the 
House, but did not reach a vote in the Senate. 

North Dakota, passed the Senate 20 to 9 and the 
House 23 to 22, but was reconsidered and lost.. 

Washington, territorial government twice passed a 
full suffrage bill, but the Supreme Court declared it 
unconstitutional. The Constitution limits suffrage 
to men. 

In Arkansas, a school suffrage bill passed the Sen- 
ate, but was defeated in the House. 

In California, a school suffrage bill passed the 
House 31 to 6, and the Senate 42 to 27, but was ve- 
toed. 

In Illinois, a bill to repeal the school suffrage re- 
ceived the vote of the mover only, while a bill to 
extend township suffrage passed the Senate 27 to 11, 
but was lost in the house by a few votes. 

In Maine, the municipal woman suffrage bill passed 
the Senate and failed in the House by only 9 votes. 

In Pennsylvania, women have been made notaries- 
public and admitted to the bar. 

Rhode Island amended her property laws for wo- 
men. 

In South Carolina, the woman suffrage question 
was up for the first time, and three votes changed 
would have passed it. 






228 FEMALE KILOSOFY. 

In 1894, woman suffrage planks were in the 
Republican State platforms of three States and one 
Territory ; in the Democratic platform of one Ter- 
ritory, and in the Populist and Prohibitionist plat- 
forms of nearly every northern State. 

The Republican National Clubs in 1893 passed a 
resolution in favor of woman suffrage, 350 to 120. 
The National Republican platform adopted at Min- 
neapolis, 1882, contains these words, "We demand 
the ballot for every citizen of the United States." 
The National Grange resolved in favor of it. Many 
Ministerial associations have done likewise, and also 
the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress. And 
many other great bodies of thinking men that we 
have not the space to mention. Never before has the 
press, the pulpit and platform given so much time 
and space to the discussion of it. Good sensible 
people are beginning to see good sensible things in a 
good sensible light. 

PROGRESS IN THE CHURCHES. 



WHEN Neal Dow set himself to work for 
Prohibition, manufacturing and selling dis- 
stilled liquors were as reputable a business 
as manufacturing and selling Bibles and hymn-books. 
The employer was under as much obligation to fur- 
nish hisemployees with some liquor to drink as with 
meat to eat. The public bell in the city of Portland, 
Maine, was wrung twice a day at the expense of the 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 229 

public, at 11 A. M. and 4 P. M., to notify the people 
that it was time to drink. It was counted very dis- 
courteous to have the preacher visit his people and 
go away without the drinks, as much so as for him to 
be present at meal-time and be allowed to go away 
without something to eat. These conditions have 
changed wonderfully, and now there is scarcely a 
church that does not hold it an offense needing disci- 
pline for its members, and even more heinous for 
preachers. It is only a few years since the churches 
have begun to take advanced ground on the tem- 
perance question. It took a long time before it did 
so on the slavery question. But when the pulpit, the 
press and the platform began to discuss slavery, its 
foundations were soon torn asunder and the fall soon 
followed. 

Likewise they are taking hold of the temperance 
question, and when we leave the women out of the 
temperance movement we reckon without our host. 
Fifty years ago women voted in very few churches. 
Now there are scarcely any in which they do not vote. 
In the M. E. churches they are on an equality with 
men in discussing and voting, not only in the churches 
but also in the conferences. The United Brethren 
and Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists and 
thirteen other denominations go farther and ordain 
them to the gosple ministry. 

The conservative United Presbyterians have per- 
mitted them to pray in public without either their 
faces or the faces of the men veiled, and no great 






230 FEMALE EILOSOEV. 

harm has resulted there from yet. The Presbyterians 
have done even better ; their women are allowed to 
act the part of a deacon— collect money and distri- 
bute to and take care of the poor— in addition to 
praying, scrubbing the meetin' house and raisin' the 
preachers salary. The Cumberland Presbyterians 
at their last General Assembly came within four votes 
of deciding to ordain them to preach. And the Epis- 
copalians decided at the last Annual Convention 
of the Diocese of Maine, by a vote of 21 to 18, to 
allow them to vote in the parish meetings . 

If the women should boycott the church it would 
end its existence in less than a generation. It is 
only a little over thirty years ago that there was no 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in the church. 
Now there are in all denominations about 40,000 
Missionary circles and bands in the world, from which 
flow the great streams of missionary influence and 
activity. Then there is the Christian Endeavor 
Societies, with 2,000,000 consecrated young men and 
women, working in a way never witnessed before, and 
probably twice as many in the unions and leagues of 
other denominations, in which they all speak, vote, 
hold office and lead meetings equally. The males 
have not a single right or advantage that is not pos- 
sessed by the females. These* constitute the church 
of the near future. Now it is only a step from 
equality between man and woman in the Church to 
equality in the State. Make them one in the Church 
and it will be impossible to make them two in the 
State, 



I 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 231 

We read of one Joshua Verin, of Rhode Island, 
who, in colonial days, refused to allow his wife to 
attend religious meetings as often as she wished, and 
he was publicly censured and deprived of his vote, 
"for restraining of the liberties of conscience." 

And also the following taken from "John Halifax, 
Gentleman' ' : 

"The poll was held in the church, a not uncommon 
usage in country boroughs, but from its rarity struck 
great awe into the towns' folk. The church warden 
was placed in the clerk's desk to receive votes. Not 
far off, the sheriff sat in his family pew, bare headed ; 
by his grave and reverent manner imposing due de- 
corum, which was carefully observed. 

The custom of the Southern M. E. church was to 
appoint men as stewards, and women as assistants, 
who did all the work, while the men bore the honors 
and represented the church in the quarterly confer- 
ences. When this doubtful honor of assistant was 
tendered Mrs. Reese-Pugh, she very promptly de- 
clined, and most clearly set forth the reason why. 
After this, all the other women declined, and now the 
stewards are doing the work that belongs to their 
office, and are wiser if not better men. 

"My friend, Mrs. Hoxie, has just been reading 
aloud from the August Century the views oOfessrs. 
Hoar and Buckley upon woman suffrage. As she 
read 'The [Right and Expediency of Woman Suf- 
frage,' my inner woman could not be restrained from 
voicing an occasional note of admiration ; but as a 



232 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

dumb spirit seemed to possess me during the reading 
of "The Wrongs and Perils of Woman Suffrage," my 
friend turned to me as she closed the book, inqui- 
ring, 'Well?' 

'Oh!' I answered, 'Mr. Buckley's attempt to ex- 
clude the light from woman suffrage reminds me 
forcibly of an instance that occurred when I taught 
at the [Springs, over in the Chilhowee.' 

'Tell me about it.' 

'Why, among the mountain women that frequented 
the hotel, to sell nuts, fruits and 'pretties,' was the 
Widow Brown. She was the only mountain woman 
thereabout that could read and write, and there was 
an air of intelligence and refinement about her that 
contrasted so sharply with her worldly surroundings 
that I was moved to make some inquiries concerning 
her previous history. I learned that her father's 
family had been 'good livers,' and that her descent 
in the social scale was due to the fact that the man 
whom she chose to be her 'head' was 'no 'count,' and 
that through weary years, by her own hard, honest 
labor, she had supported her children and the 'head 
of the house.' My heart went out to her 9 and I be- 
came one of the constant purchasers of her wares. 
Later, accepting her hospitable invitation, I called 
upon her at her windowless hut. 

"Not long afterwards, it was said, 'The widow 
Brown has moved ; she has gone to live in Happy 
Valley.' Subsequently, encountering her in the hotel 
grounds, I inquired if she liked her new home. 'Oh, 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 233 

yes,!' she said, 'I have a right comfortable cabin.' 
*And,' I queried, being always drearily affected by 
the windowless mountain cabins, 'have you win- 
dows?' 'Yes, two.' 'I am glad; it must be very 
pleasant.' 'Why,' hesitatingly, 'I never was wonted 
to windows, and they didn't seem natural, and I 
nailed boards across them.' 'And now does it seem 
homelike?' 'Well,' dubiously, 'it is better — espe- 
cially when I sit with my back to them ; but it aint 
to say plumb homelike, for a right smart chance of 
light gets over the edge, for all the boards I could 
get were a heap too narrow." Eliza R. Shier. 



PROGRESS IN THE MINISTRY. 



TDEV. DR. AUGUSTA J. CHAPMAN, Chairman 
Jfjof the Woman's General Committee on Relig- 
ious Congress in the World's Congress Auxil- 
iary, discovered there are at present seventeen de- 
nominations that have ordained women to the minis- 
try. And the qaiaker theologian, Gurney, says: "We 
well know that there are no women among us more 
generally distinguished for modesty, gentleness, 
order, and a right submission to their brethren, than 
those who have been called by the Divine Master to 
the ministry/' 

"By what a wonderful chain of paganism we are 
bound, when, in the face of all that Jesus did for 
women, and in face of the facts of the Friends' ex- 



234 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

perience, our great theological seminaries are still 
closed to women i They profess to exist to save the 
world, while their doors are shut to the talented, 
educated, consecrated women who are going forth as 
missionaries and evangelists. At this time, there are 
about 400 lady students in the colleges and semina- 
ries of this country who are looking forward to foreign 
mission work. Millions of women in heathen lands 
can only be reached by women missionaries. Thou- 
sands of churches in our own country are without 
pastors ; and women, with all the other necessary 
qualifications, are ready to enter the world for it." — 
Selected. 

PROGRESS IN MEDICINE. 



T ESS than fifty years ago, Harriet Hunt and 
1 1 Elizabeth Black well studied medicine, and it 
resulted in complete social astracism impos- 
sible to be endured by any but the strongest and most 
courageous women. No woman doctor earned a liv- 
ing before 1860. No respectable family in any com- 
mon respectable neighborhood would let rooms to a 
woman physician. Even when her friends gave her 
shelter, a business card or sign was not allowed. 
Prejudice personified! There were fifty- two women 
graduated from the Woman's Medical College of 
Pennsylvania last year. They were also numerous 
in other colleges, and according to recent statistics, 



FEMALE ElIvOSOFY. 235 

there are about 2,000 women practicing medicine on 
the continent of North America. Seventy hospital 
physicians or surgeons, 75 professors in the schools, 
610 specialists for the diseases of women, 60 alien- 
ists, 65 orthopedists, 40 oculists and aurists, and 30 
electro- therapeutists . 

There are three women doctors — Alice Mitchell, 
Helen Knight and Francis G. Deane— now among the 
sanitary corps of the New York Board of Health, and 
it is agreed that the board is all the healthier for 
their work. 

PROGRESS IN EDUCATION. 



NOT long since, the souls and minds of women 
were squeezed by our educational institutions 
almost as badly as the Chinese squeeze the 
feet of their children. Some years ago when some 
girls spoke" of studying Greek and Latin, a reverend 
divine was heard to say, "I don't like Plato in petti- 
coats." But now " Plato in petticoats" is as well 
liked as Plato in pants, and many times more so. 
And Plato in petticoats is fast pushing herself to the 
front and carrying off many of the choice prizes both 
in colleges and practical life. Where competition 
has been allowed between the sexes on equal terms 
the females have generally shown themselves the 
superior. The first year of the great Chicago Uni- 
vei^ity, eleven of the scholarships were won by wo- 






236 FEMALE FII.OSOFY. 

men, and yet they constituted but one-third of the 
membership. 

Mrs . Mary A. Li vermore say s , " When I got through 
the grammar school in Boston there was nothing more 
for me. If my father had not been able to provide me 
with private tutors my education would have ended 
there. Now in eight-tenths of the colleges women 
are admitted, besides having colleges of their own. 
When I was married, until 20 years afterwards, a 
woman could not own a penny. Everything belonged 
to her husband, even when she earned the money 
herself. Now all is changed. It has all come about 
within the lass 50 years. 

How? That is the question. Men have done it. 
We could not change laws. We could not open col- 
leges. Men have done it. That shows how men have 
improved. They have become juster and fairer to 
women. It shows that men have improved. To be 
sure women wanted these things done, but if men had 
not grown they would not have done it. 

I think it is about six of one and half a dozen of 
the other. Men sin in one way, women in another. 
Men drink, fight and are immoral. Women are narrow, 
envious and jealous. When I look around the world 
and see the great works men have done, the libraries 
they have founded, the medical colleges they have 
endowed, the hospitals they have established, the 
churches they have founded and have paid for, 
even when they did not care to go, but to give 
others the opportunity they wanted, and all the 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 237 

other great human work they are doing, it is simply 
nonsense to say they are not improving. But there 
is only one standard by which to judge men and 
women. There is no immunity from crime. There 
is no sex in guilt and sin. It is as bad for a man to 
get drunk as for] a woman. It is as bad for a 
man to be immoral as for a woman, and we are 
fast approaching that single standard. See the pro- 
gress as witnessed in the Breckenridge case. The 
stage would not have Miss Pollard. The political 
world would not have Breckinridge." — Selected. 

"A Mohammedan mufti (a religious chief) told a 
nissionary in 1859, 'You might as well teach a cat to 
ead as to teach a girl.' 

I read in a book of Moslem traditions that Moham- 
med once looked down into hell and saw the greater 
part of those confined there to be women, and that 
he directs his followers to watch women as if they 
were children; they must be kept up in a harem, 
must be kept veiled; above all, never allow the teach- 
ing of girls to read . It was alleged not only to be 
useless, but very dangerous. A few years ago, a 
prominent Moslem of Tripoli, on his return from 
Constantinople, asked the consent of the mufti for 
the opening of a school for girls of the better class of 
Moslems. It was referred to a council, and voted 
down almost unanimously. The leader then got the 
mothers interested. They argued so successfully that 
consent was obtained from the authorities to open a 
small school for girls. Now they have a large build- 



238 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

ing and there is a daily attendance of nearly five 
hundred. Among the number are some of the rela- 
tives of the mufti who had such a poor opinion of 
female mental capacity. In Tripoli many of the grad- 
uates of the girls' seminary of the mission, many of 
whom are of the better class of Greek Christians, 
hold great influence in the formation of public opin- 
ion. They direct the education of their younger 
brothers and sisters or children, act as correspond- 
ents for their fathers, brothers or husbands, assist 
in many ways to add to the prosperity of the fam- 
ily. They have inaugurated reading circles, and 
although they do not all become identified directly 
with our mission church, they do show by their life 
that they are more devoted Christians than they were 
before. A few years ago the Syrians regarded the 
education of the women as utterly impossible. 

In the humble villages results of Christian educa- 
tion is more marked even than in cities. Here the 
graduate of the Tripoli girls' school is the best edu- 
cated person in the village ; is often called upon to 
decide important questions. A man in speaking of 
one of these girls, remarked, 'She is the best man in 
the village.' The education of the girl works com- 
plete change in her home. The food is better cooked, 
clothes better made, more attention paid to the sur- 
roundings, much better hygienic conditions within 
and without the home. But what is better than all. 
she has a new light in her heart, the light that comes 



FKMAIvE FILOSOFY. 239 

from a conscience quickened and a knowledge of a 
Savior and his salvation." — Selected. 

Certainly God did not make a mistake when He 
placed boys and girls in the same family And if 
they live together in the same houses why not attend 
the same schools and recite in the same classes and 
deposit their ballots at the same polls? Answer if 
you can. 

Many of the higher educational institutions are 
now either open to women or are opening, since they 
have proven themselves equal to the tasks there im- 
posed . There are 35 women taking the past- graduate 
course of Yale* There were 35 in Brown University 
last year. At Wellington, Cape Colony, there is a 
seminary not many years old with a faculty number- 
ing 20, and it has more than 1,000 graduates The 
Board of Regents of the State University of Michigan 
has resolved "That, henceforth, in the selection of 
professors, instructors and other assistants for the 
University, no distinction be made between men and 
women, but that the applicant best fitted receiva 
appointment." Many of the same objections that 
are now brought against the ballots for women were 
once used against the higher education for women. 
And since the "awful" things did not occur in the 
one case they are not likely to in the other. 

Col. Higginson said, at the Boston Tea Party : "I 
want to add something, because not one word has 
been said to-night, and very little in the woman suf- 



240 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

frage journals, about that great step which has been 
taken for the cause of women in Massachusetts and in 
this country by the creation of Radcliffe College. I 
do not think the advocates of woman's higher ed- 
ucation themselves appreciate how great a step it is. 
Still less do they appreciate how great the debt is 
that women already owe, as I myself predicted ten 
years ago that they would yet owe to the public spirit 
and the determination of Charles William Eliot, the 
president of Harvard University. The man who, six 
years ago, risked all his influence with the Board of 
Overseers to obtain the admission of women on equal 
terms to the medical school, though he failed in that, 
should have secured more of the confidence of women 
than he seems to have won, and he is now the person 
upon whom this whole great movement has turned, 
without whose skill and judgment it never could have 
been accomplished, and under whose guidance a 
great and permanent step has been taken. It is a 
comparatively easy thing for a young college or a 
small college, with a few hundred students only, and 
not governed by its graduates, as Harvard is, to ad- 
mit women, were it only as an experiment. But for 
an institution 250 years old, with 2,000 pupils in its 
various departments, and a vast body of graduates, 
largely conservative, to give to women their full 
rights at once, is no such easy thing. You perhaps 
do not realize that, if Harvard College were fully to 
admit women on an equality to-morrow, it would not 
be merely conceding the opportunity of the higher 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 241 

education to women, but the principles of woman suf- 
frage as well, because it would be impossible to 
admit women there and not give them the right to 
vote every year on the overseers who govern the col- 
lege; and it is that necessity, more than anything 
else, as I have reason to know, which holds back the 
graduates of the college from conceding everything 
at once. The essential thing has been conceded. It 
makes but little difference whether a man gives you 
his note for a thousand dollars or whether he endorses 
your note for the same amount. The seal of Harvard 
College on the Radcliffe College diploma, the signa- 
ture of President Eliot upon that diploma, makes 
that diploma as valuable a possession to every young 
girl who goes out from that institution to the far- 
thest extremes of the country as if it proceeded from 
Harvard College itself. Jt is, therefore, in my judg- 
ment—as a citizen of Cambridge, as a co-educationist, 
which neither the corporation of Harvard College 
nor the corporation of Radcliffe College yet is — one 
of the greatest steps that has been taken for women 
in Massachusetts within my memory ; and it is in 
order to bear my testimony to this point, and to the 
signal services of President Eliot in securing this 
point, that I have ventured thus far to take up that 
branch of the subject." 



15 



242 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

PROGRESS IN SOCIAL RELATIONS. 



THE relation of woman to man wa3a relation 
of inferiority, and of incapacity to act for her- 
self in all the important transactions of life. 
Woman was not permitted to vote ; she could hold 
no office, except that by a. strange anomaly she could 
occupy the throne of some of the most powerful and 
highly civilized monarchies of the earth. The mar- 
ried woman could not hold property ; could not make 
a contract ; had no lawful control over her own chil- 
dren or her own person ; she could not make a will ; 
the custom of society shut her out from the learned 
professions and from all profitable occupations. It 
was deemed unbecoming for her to speak in public, 
and in many parts of the world to appear in public 
without an escort. On the continent of Europe and 
in the mines of Great Britain she was condemned to 
the most brutal and degrading occupations, and was 
sometimes harnessed to the plow with bullocks, or 
on all fours drew loads over the tramways of mines. 
If those who ask now that the vote of the woman 
shall be counted in the United States have any preju- 
dice to encounter, let those who feel it remember 
that forty years ago it would have seemed far more 
monstrous to them to do away with the condition of 
things that I have described than it does to-day to 
count the votes of their wives, or their sisters, or 
their mothers.— Selected. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 243 



NON-POLITICAL PROGRESS. 



IN the recent debate on woman suffrage in the 
Massachusetts Legislature, Mr. Darling, of Hyde 
Park said . 
* 'Whether it is a right born in woman or not, does 
not matter to me in the slightest. I urge the pas- 
sage of this bill as MY right, as the right of the men 
of this Commonwealth. Look over all the depart- 
ments of life with which you and I come in contact 
every day, and you will believe with me, that there 
has been a steady march of progress and advance- 
ment in the last generation in every department ex- 
cept one, and that is the political department of our 
government. No man will deny that our political 
life has been abased, and is being abased more and 
more every day that we live. It may be a remarka- 
ble coincidence, but it is the only element of our life 
into which woman has not been allowed to enter." 



244 FEMAtB FlLOSOFY. 

FEMALE FILOSOFY NOT FAR-FETCHED. 



V' r FAST young man decided to make a formal 
I ' 1 offer of his hand and heart — all he was worth. 
" He cautiously prefaced his declaration with a 
few questions. 

Did she love him well enough to live in a cottage 
with him? Was she a good cook? Did she think it 
a wife's duty to make home happy? Would she con- 
sult his tastes and wishes concerning her associates 
and pursuits in life? Could she make her own 
clothes? etc. 

The young lady said that before she answered his 

questions, she would tell him of some negative vir- 
tues she possessed. 

She never drank, smoked or chewed; never owed 
a bill to laundress or tailor ; never stayed out all 
night playing billiards ; never lounged on the street 
corners and ogled giddy girls; never "stood in" 
with the boys for cigars and wine suppers. 

"Now," said she rising indignantly, "lam assured 
that you do all these things, and yet you expect all 
the virtues in me, while you do not possess any your- 
self ;" and she bowed him out and left him on the 
door-step a wiser man. — Anon. 

A FABLE— THE VIRTUOUS GANDERS. 

In a large field there lived a great many Geese and 
Ganders. Now in one corner of the field there was a 
muddy pond, and if any Goose dabbled in it ever so 



FEMALE K1X0S0EY. 245 

little, many other Geese and all the Ganders hissed 
at her, and no Gander even so much as thought of 
asking to marry her. But all the Ganders played 
in the mud as much as they liked, and not one of 
them, not even the worst, who was covered with mud 
to th3 top of his head, thought that was the least 
reason why he should not ask the wisest Goose in the 
flock to be his bride. 

Moral — What is sauce for the Gander is sauce for 
the Goose. 

ONE STANDARD FOR BOTH SEXES. 

Josiah Allen's children have been brought up to 
think that sin pf any kind is just as bad in a man ai 
in a woman ; and any place of amusement that was 
bad for a woman to go to was bad for a man. 

Now, when Thomas Jefferson was a little feller he 
was bewitched to go to circuses, and Josiah said : 

''Better let him go, Samantha; it hain't no place 
for wimmen or girls, but it won't hurt a boy." 

Says I: "Josiah Allen, the Lord made Thomas 
Jefferson with just as pure a heart as Tirzah Ann, 
and no bigger ears and eyes; and if Thomas J. goes 
to the circus, Tirzah Ann goes too." 

That stopped that. And then he was bewitched to 
get with other boys that smoked and chewed tobacco, 
and that Josiah was just that easy turn that he would 
have let him go with 'em. But says I : 

"Josiah Allen, if Thomas Jefferson goes with those 
boys, and gets to chewin' and smokin' tobacco, I 
shall buy Tirzah Ann a pipe." 



246 FEMALE FILOSOEY. 

And that stopped that. 

"And about drinkin," says I, "Thomas Jefferson, 
if it should be the will of Providence to change you 
into a wild bear, I will chain you up and do the best 
I can by you. But if you ever do it yourself, turn 
yourself into a wild beast by drinkin', I will run 
away, for I never could stand it, never! And," I 
continued, "if I ever see you hangin' 'round bar- 
rooms and tavern doors, Tirzah Ann shall hang too." 

Josiah argued with me. Says he : "It dosen't look 
as bad for a boy as it does for a girl." 

Says I: "Custom makes the difference; we are 
more used to seeing men. But," says I, "when liquor 
goes to work to make a fool and a brtite of anybody 
it don't stop to ask about the sex, and makes a wild 
beast and idiot of a man or woman, and to look 
down from Heaven I guess a man looks as bad layin' 
dead drunk as a woman does." 

Says I: "Things looks differently from up there 
than what they do to us— it is a more sightly place. 
And you talk about looks, Josiah Allen. I don't go 
on clear looks, I goon principle. Will the Lord say 
to me in the last day, 'Josiah Allen's wife, how is it 
with the soul of Tirzah Ann — ; as for Thomas Jef- 
ferson's soul, he bein' a boy, it hain't of no account?' 
No! I shall have to give an account to him for my 
dealin's with both of these souls, male and female. 
And I should feel guilty if I brought him up to think 
that what was impure for a woman was pure for a 
man. If a man has a greater desire to do wrong — 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 247 

which I won't dispute, " says I, lookin' keenly onto 
Josiah, "he has greater strength to resist temptation. 
And so," says I, in mild accents, but firm as old Ply- 
mouth Rock, "If Thomas Jefferson hangs, Tirzah 
Ann shall hang too." 

I have brought Thomas Jefferson up to think that 
it was just as bad for him to listen to a bad story or 
song as for a girl, or worse, for he had more strength 
to run away, and that it was a disgrace to him to 
talk or listen to any stuff that he would be ashamed 
to have Tirzah Ann or me to hear. I have brought 
him up to think that manliness didn't consist in hav- 
ing a cigar in his mouth, and his hat on one side, and 
swearin' and slang phrases, and a knowledge of 
questionable amusements, but in layin' holt of every 
duty that comes to him with a brave heart and a 
cheerful face ; and helpin' to right the wrong and 
protect the weak, and makin' the most and best of 
the mind, and the soul God has given him. In short, 
I have brought him up to think that purity and vir- 
tue are both feminine and masculine, and that God's 
angels are not necessarily all she ones." — Samantha 
Allen. 

A ONE-SIDED CONTRACT. 

There are generally two parties to a contract The 
editor of the New York "Tribune" lately received 
the following letter from a so-called victim of mis- 
placed confidence, and who is doubtless only one of a 
vast multitude : "Sir : Are contracts morally binding 
after they have become distasteful and unjust. Be- 






248 FEMALE KILOSOFY. 

ing the victim of a contract, I ask for information. 
Ten years ago I entered into the f ollowiug compact; 
with a man whom I will name Mr. A.— : In return 
for various services on my part, which may be sum- 
med up as duties of a general manager of an estate, 
real and personal, I was to receive, my support, in- 
cluding my board and clothes, in a style befitting my 
employer's means and position. Though not a lucra- 
tive prospect, it had some attractions for me, not the 
least of which were the certainty of leisure for the 
indulgence of scholarly tastes and relief from fear of 
future struggles with poverty. 

Mr. A — , having no son, induced me to adopt his 
name. Now, I am just forty years old, a graduate of 
college, fairly good-looking —at least ladies give me a 
quick glance as they pass me in the street-- strong in 
health and energetic in spirit, but penniless and help- 
ess and tired of my covenant. Look at a list of my 
duties. I am my master's confidential clerk and 
typewriter, copying law-papers and looking up au- 
thorities, If he writes an article for the press, I 
revise it. If he is tired of a book agent or an office- 
bore, I dispatch him or her. I make the disgareeable 
calls and placate the disagreeable people. I manage 
the servants and pay the bills. I am also Mr. A — 's 
valet and nurse, and sometimes my duties are oner- 
ous and ill-rewarded with smiles— on the principle 
that no man is a Chesterfield to his valet. The en- 
tertainment of his company usually rests on me. 
From writing a political speeeh to adjusting a picture 



FEMALE FILOSOKY. 249 

book nothing can be done without me. I am every- 
where. My coveted leisure was never known, and 
the only chance of earning a dollar I ever find is by 
giving a few painting lessons. But I cannot give 
myself up to art as my tastes would dictate, for I 
have no time. And for all these duties what am I 
paid? Nothing. I eat at my master's table. My 
clothes he gives me grudgingly, and money I never 
have, not a cent. As to other rewards : I enjoy his 
respect and a little of his company. I enjoy the rep- 
utation of being the bob on the end of the tail of a 
rather great kite. I enjoy the approval of my con- 
science. Of course it is noble to sacrifice self and 
live for another, but a free-born American citizen 
likes to have five cents in his pocket when a street 
car comes along. My self-respect suffers daily pangs. 
My lot is unendurable. This contract is for life. I 
hear you say 'How could a sane man make such a 
bargain?' My dear sir, I am not a sane man, I am 
not a man at all. I am my employer's (?) wife." — C. 
E. Ames. 

NO MONEY IN IT. 

The following anecdote, from "The Household," 
puts in a shrewd way a much-needed lesson. The 
unselfish house-mother, however, cares little whether 
"there's money" in it or not; what she wants is ap- 
preciation : 

"My mother gets me up, builds the fire, gets my 
breakfast, and sends me off," said a bright youth, 







250 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

"Then she gets my father up, and gets his breakfast, 
and sends him off. Then she gives the other children 
their breakfast, and sends them off to school ; and 
then she and the baby have their breakfast." 

"How old is the baby?" asked the reporter. 

"Oh, she is 'most two, but she can talk and walk 
as well as any of us." 

"Are you well paid?" 

"I get two dollars a week, and father gets two dol- 
lars a day." 

"How much does your mother get?" 

With a bewildered look the boy said: "Mother? 
Why, she doesn't work for anybody." 

"I thought you said she worked for all of you." 

"O, yes! for us she does; but there's no money 
in it." 

WOMEN DO NOTHING. 

"The guileless man who asked how women kill 
time, got his answer from a woman, who, with her 
husband, two children, and a servant, lived in a house 
with nine rooms. Having kept a statistical account 
for one year, she gave the results as follows : Num- 
ber of lunches put up, 1,157; meals ordered, 763; 
desserts made, 172; lamps filled, 328; rooms dusted, 
2,395; times dressed children, 768; visits received, 
879; visits paid, 167; books read, 88; papers read, 
543 ; stories read aloud, 534 ; games played, 229 , 
church services attended, 1,251 ; articles mended, 
1,237; letters written, 429; hours in music, 20; 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 251 

hours in Sunday School work. 208; hours in gar- 
dening, 49 ; sick days, 44 ; amusements attended, 10 ; 
besides the thousand and one duties too small to men- 
tion." — Selected. 

OUR DAUGHTERS. 

"The curse of our modern society is that our young 
women are taught that the first, second, third, fourth, 
fifth, sixth, seventh, fiftieth, thousandth thing in 
their life is to get somebody to take care of them. 
Instead of that, the first lesson should be, how, under 
God, they may take care of themselves. The simple 
fact is that the majority of them have to take care of 
themselves, and that, too, after having, through the 
false notions of their parents, wasted the years in 
which they ought to have learned how to successfully 
maintain themselves. It is inhuman and cruel for 
any father or mother to pass their daughters into 
womanhood having given them no facility for earn- 
ing their livelihood. Madame deStaelsaid: 'It is 
not these writings that I am proud of, but the fact 
that I have facilities in five occupations, in any of 
which I could make a livelihood.' We should teach 
our daughters that work of any kind, when neces- 
sary, is a credit and honor to them. It is a shame 
for a young woman belonging to a large family, to be 
inefficient when the mother and father toil their lives 
away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter 
to be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. It 
is as honorable to sweep the house, make beds, or 
trim hats, as it is to play the piano, twist a watch- 
chain or embroider a slipper." — Selected. 






252 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

GIRLS SBOULD BE TAUGHT TO CARE FOB CHILDREN. 

Mrs. Alice Moore McComas, of Los Angelos, says: 
"Nowadays, when women are entering the pro- 
fessions, it is well to look at the Mother question. 
Motherhood should be looked upon as a high and 
holy profession. It is so regarded by the mothers who 
are most successful in rearing children, but with the 
appalling death-rate among children that stares us 
in the face, one can hardly say that many women 
have so succeeded. Girls are sent to school to be 
trained as teachers. They are drilled by the hour, by 
the day, in music and 'the arts.' They draw, and 
sketch and daub; they murder the King's English, 
and as many foreign tongues as they can form a 
speaking acquaintance with, and they take a 'course 
of lessons' in all sorts of fads, but it does not yet 
seem to have become fashionable to teach girls to 
take care of babies." 

She advocates the study of motherhood for all in- 
telligent women, and her own blooming daughters 
are indications that she puts some of her theories 
into practice. 

GIRLS WHO SIGH FOR THE CITY. 

"We all know the girl who writes : 'I want to come 
to the city and earn my living ; what chance have I?' 
She writes from Timbuctoo and from the country 
town where we used to live ourselves. She can 'do 
most anything, you know,' to earn money, from 
painting a plaque to writing editorials on the eccen- 
tricities of the tariff ; and the town she was born and 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 253 

brought up in, where everybody calls her by her first 
name and likes her, where she has a sunny little 
room all to herself and a new gown whenever she 
cries for it, won't hold her any longer. Now, here is 
an answer to that girl that a woman wrote who knew 
what she was talking about. There should be a spe- 
cial act of Congress providing that this letter should 
be printed, framed, and hung in every schoolhouse, 
every village seminary, every small city high school. 
The woman's name is Martha Everts Holden, and 
the ambitious girl of whom she writes had written to 
her: 

"I felt like posting an immediate answer and say- 
ing: 'Stay where you are.' I didn't do it, though, 
for I knew it would be useless. The girl is bound 
to come, and come she will. And she will drift into 
a third rate boarding house, than which, if there is 
anything meaner— let us pray. And if she is pretty 
she will have to carry herself like snow on high hills 
to avoid contamination. If she is confiding and in- 
nocent, the fate of that highly persecuted heroine of 
the old-fashioned romance, Clarissa Harlowe, is before 
her. If she is homely the doors of opportunity are 
firmly closed against her. If she is smart she will 
perhaps succeed in earning enough money to pay her 
board bill and have sufficient left over to indulge in 
the maddening extravagance of an occasional paper 
of pins or a ball of tape. What if, after hard labor 
and repeated failure, she does secure something like 
success? No sooner will she do so than up will step 






254 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

some dapper youth who will beckon her over the 
border into the land where troubles just begin. She 
won't know how to sew or bake or make good coffee, 
for such arts are liable to be overlooked when a girl 
makes a career for herself ; and so love will gallop 
away over the hills like a riderless steed and happi- 
ness will flare like a light in a windy night. 

O, no, my little country maid; stay where you are 
if you have a home and friends. Be content with 
fishing for trout in the brook rather than cruising a 
stormy city for whales. A great city is a cruel place 
for young lives. It takes them as the cider press 
takes jucy apples, sun-kissed and flavored with the 
breath of the hills, and crushes them into pulp. There 
is a spoonful of juice in each apple, but cider is cheap. 
The girl of whose success you read is in nine cases 
out of ten the girl with a friend at court who gives 
her the opportunity to show what she can do. With- 
out such a friend the path of the lone girl in a great 
city is a briery, uphill track." — Selected. 

MELANCHOLY. 

"Why do so many women have melancholia?" re- 
peated the doctor, who had a large practice among 
the 'depressed' and 'nervous' feminine population. 
"Because they don't care to avoid it. Because they 
absolutely disregard the rules of mental and physical 
well-being. Because they would rather eat what they 
like and suffer indigestion and the blues afterward 
than to eat what is good for them but doesn't tickle 
their palates. Because they'd rather sit around on 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 255 

downy cushions than take a tramp six miles through 
the open air. Because they read too much senti- 
mental stuff. Because they haven't enough to occupy 
their minds and their hands." 

Then the doctor paused to take breath, and began 
again somewhat less aggreasively : 

"It is never the women who have cause to feel 
blue," she said, "who indulge in blues. The w t o- 
men who have shiftless husbands, hard-hearted land- 
lords, sick babies, and all the usual accompaniments 
of poverty, never grow so depressed that they have 
to be treated for it. They are too busy. It's the 
woman with an adoring family, social position, and a 
comfortable income who doesn't find life worth liv- 
ing. It isn't the servant girl who gets up at six to 
kindle the fire, and who slaves all day who indulges 
in melancholy, but the daughter of the family, who 
arises at 8, dawdles over her breakfast, shops a little, 
craves excitement with all her heart, and is melan- 
choly because she does'nt have it." 

"There is no habit which grows upon one so rap- 
idly," went on the doctor. "It becomes a disease in 
a very short time. My own plan, whenever I feel 
an attack coming on, is to put on my walking boots 
and tramp vigerously as far as I can. It is simply 
impossible to exercise and feel blue at the same time. 
Of course a general care of the health is necessary, 
and work is the chief factor in effecting a cure. 
Every woman should have an occupation which, if it 
doesn't entirely absorb her, will at least keep her 



256 FEMALE KlLOSCtfV. 

busy. And she should give up her mind to practical 
rather than theoretical affairs. She should study how 
to put an extra shelf in the closet or how to stop a 
squeaking door, or how to make an overshoe that 
won't come off at the heel, rather than the teachings 
of the theosophical school, or the philosophy or Her- 
bert Spencer. Ordinarily good health, plenty of 
exercise, plenty of work, and an interest in the affairs 
of this world rather than the next are the great pre- 
ventives and cures of melancholia." — Selected. 



AGE OF CONSENT. 



BY "age of consent" is meant certain statutes 
that set a certain age at, or after which a female 
child may be ruined, by her own consent, and 
the man committing the crime go unpunished. Only 
two States in the Union (January, 1895) that put the 
age of consent as high as 18 years. 

Girls under the age of ten are now protected by law 
in all the States, but not long since some had placed 
that age at seven years. But what girl at the age of 
ten, twelve, fourteen, or even sixteen, understands 
the consequences of consenting to such a thing? 
These young girls, just blooming into the beauty of 
womanhood, are allured by some vile w T retch, with 
promises of presents, position, influence or money, to 
consent to a crime that from that time on makes her 
an outcast from society, and the laws regard him as 



FKMALE FILOSOFY. 257 

committing no crime. Glance at the following table 
and you will see how high an estimate the legislators 
of the different States put upon virtue and morality, 
and the encouragement they give to the same ; the 
little interest they have in little girls and the protec- 
tion they give to libertines. In January, 1895, the 
age of consent in the different States stood as fol- 
lows : 

Ten years in Alabama, North Carolina, and South 
Carolina. 

Twelve years in Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas and 
Wisconsin. 

Thirteen years in Iowa, New Hampshire and Utah . 

Fourteen years in Arizona, California, Connecticut, 
Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, 
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mex- 
ico, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont and West Vir- 
ginia. 

Fifteen years in Delaware and Montana. 

Sixteen years in Arkansas, Colorado, District of 
Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Da- 
kota, Tennessee and Washington. 

Seventeen years in Florida. 

Eighteen years in Kansas and Wyoming. 

[Since the above was written, Colorado, with three 
women in the Legislature, has raised the age of con- 
Bent to 21 years. And New Hampshire has placed 
the age of consent of both girls and boys at the same — 
21 years.] 

16 



258 FEMALE EILOSOKY. 

Think of it! Here is a little girl 16 years old that 
has inherited a little property and she wants to 
trade it for another one that suits her better, or she 
wants to sell it, or give it away, or even join herself 
in marriage with some one, and in thirty States the 
law steps in and says she is not capable of doing bus- 
iness for herself and must be protected from fraud, 
and decides her consent is not sufficient to make the 
action binding. Yet in almost all the States her con- 
sent can be secured for immoral purposes, and the 
law makes that "consent" a justifiable reason for 
allowing her male partner to go unpunished. Is it 
not strange that her consent to a contract involving 
the exchange or disposal of property, or herself in 
marriage, is not sufficient to make such exchange, 
disposal, or union legal, and yet that consent is suf- 
ficient to make an immoral act legal? Such laws that 
protect old sinners, hardened in vice, in alluring and 
disgracing and ruining innocent girls of ten, twelve, 
or even sixteen years old, just because in their inno- 
cence and ignorance they consent to the act, and that 
ignore such consent in other contracts, are a disgrace 
to any heathen nation, much more so to a civilized 
and enlightened country. 

If the mothers and sisters of the innocent girls had 
votes and voices in making the laws of the States, 
would it be possible that such legislation would dis- 
grace our statute books? Nay, verily. For ths two 
States now that protect them till they reach eighteen 
are Wyoming, where the women have voted the same 



FEMALE FILOSOKY. 259 

as men since 1869, and Kansas, where they have had 
municipal suffrage since 1887. Can any one con- 
ceive of any mother consenting to such laws that put 
the age of consent of girls below the age of majority? 
Indeed, it is pretty hard to conceive of the fathers 
and brothers doing such a thing. And no legislature 
should ever pass a law, or kill a bill on this question 
unless they record the vote of every member. Let 
them defend their action before their constituents. 

We have read of a certain legislature that had a 
bill before it to raise the age of consent. The Senate 
debated the question a whole afternoon "behind closed 
doors and for men only." That poor, young, inno- 
cent thing never saw the light after those doors were 
closed on it. "Men love darkness better than light 
because their deeds are evil." It died because it 
could not stand to breathe the atmosphere saturated 
with tobacco, whiskey, vulgarity and profanity. 
Now, if men can justify themselves in the slaughter 
of the innocents in this way, let them stand forth and 
do it. Let the friends know the reasons for administer- 
ing such poisons and killing such bills. Why commit 
the deed in the dark? Why in secret, -in the absence 
of its friends? Should mothers and sisters not hear 
the arguments in favor of laws that protect libertines 
and blacklegs in despoiling their children? And how 
can men justify themselves in the presence of wife, 
sister or little daughter? Now, legislation that is so 
bad that it cannot meet the approval of pure minded 
mothers, sisters and daughters, cannot bring r\uch 



260 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

good to a nation. And what tha% legislature needed 
was a few female legislators, and that bill would have 
passed without discussion. 

I hereby challenge any member of any legislature 
to justify himself in voting for a law that makes the 
age of consent below the age of majority, to do so 
over his own name in good faith, in any reputable 
book, newspaper or magazine, and if permittedl will 
answer him for the benefit of tbe public, who ought 
to know why such laws are upon our statute books. 
And the public has a right to, and it is its duty to 
demand the repeal of such disgraceful, unreasonable 
and uncalled for laws. And the fathers and mothers 
and brothers and sisters of these innocent girls ought 
to not give themselves any rest until these laws are 
erased. At whose instigation are such laws made, 
and ages lowered? To whom is there any profit in 
them? To none but the lewd fellows of the "baser 
sort," who want to prey upon the ignorance and in- 
nocence of impotent childhood. In other words, they 
are in the interests of the brothel and saloon and 
their frequenters. 

Most of our social evils grow out of a double stand- 
ard of morality fostered by us. We can watch a boy 
chewing, smoking and drinking ; hear him swearing 
and using vulgar language ; know of him going in 
bad company, and attending obscene shows with lit- 
tle or no compunction of conscience, and even think 
it "smart." But ©f course a girl that does any of 
these unfits herself for the respect and company of 









FEMALE FILOSOEY. 261 

men, and much more so for the company of women. 
Women will look over badness in men, but in women 
never. Chastity is an absolute essential in a woman 
for social distinction and position with either men 
or women, but it is not essential in men. How often 
do we hear men, and women too, say: "Oh, boys 
must sow their wild oats. They will settle down all 
right after awhile and make excellent husbands." 

Just look at the man who has been "sowing wild 
oats" for a number of years. He is unworthy to be- 
come the head of a home, much less to lead to the 
altar a pure souled maiden. He brings to the mar- 
riage altar only the dregs of his being. The holy 
flame of purity and the vitality of innocent youth 
are gone forever. He brings nothiug but a body dis- 
sipated with vice, a spirit dwarfed by crime, a mind 
weakened by indulgence, and a constitution sapped 
of all its reserved strength— and in lieu of such he 
demands the purest and most virtuous girl in the 
land. And from men so marked with sin, what can 
be expected? Children shrivilled in soul, inheriting 
evil propensities, marked with sin before their eyes 
see the light. A boy who sows wild oats sacrifices 
his nobler self and is not worthy the love of any high 
minded, pure and noble souled girl. 

Our moral standard must be changed and elevated. 
They have so biased the minds of the men who make 
laws for men, women and children, that they seem 
almost over solicitous to protect from prison the 
crimson colored libertine, that they have almost ig- 



262 FEMALE ElIvOSOFY. 

nored the helpless, defenseless, innocent girls, just 
when and where they need protection the most. Thej 
are still in short dresses, and playing with dolls, and 
so young they would scarcely be trusted to buy their 
own clothes, own a watch or drive a horse. And yet 
they are trusted to decide things that pertain to their 
happiness or unhappiness, their glory or shame, their 
honor or disgrace for time or eternity. Shame on a 
.people who allow such statutes to stand on the books. 
Friends of God and humanity, shall we allow this 
stream of iniquity to flow on and we stand by in 
silence. Let us demand a white life for two. Let 
us set the standard for consent at least side by side 
with the majority. Let us not rest till mothers, 
daughters and sisters help to make the laws, fix the 
penalties for their violations, and help to protect these 
innocent little girls. Let us raise the age of consent, 
or which is better, let us erase it. Dr. A. H. Lewis 
says : v "It is unchristian ; it ought to be un-Ameri- 
can. It is a shame and a crime against manhood, 
and a triple crime against girlhood. It outrages 
motherhood. It leads boys and men into vileness 
and degradation. It should no longer remain that 
our statutes, for the sake of protecting male animals, 
thus make war on the purity of both sexes, and all 
that is best in our civilization which bears the name 
of Christian. Let such facts as these fan the flame 
of public opinion until all age of consent laws mingle 
with the ashes of the dead past." 



FEMALE EILOSOFY. 263 

THE GAINS OF FORTY YEARS. 

BY MRS. LUCY STONE, BOSTON, 1891. 

XAM to speak to you of some of the gains of forty 
years, and one of the most emphatic gains that 
presents itself, as I rise here now, is the difference 
between that convention, forty years ago, and this. 
This morning we were in the Meionaon holding our 
meeting there. Before us were the reporters, faith- 
fully reporting the meeting, and doing their best to 
report it fairly. Forty years ago, when our conven- 
tion met in Worcester, except the New York "Tri- 
bune," the papers, far and wide, laughed at it as a 
"hen convention." That was what they called it. 
One of the gains between that time and this is that 
women can meet and sit in convention and find them- 
selves fairly and well reported ; not ill treated be- 
cause they are women. 

Among the first and best gains that have been ac- 
corded to us is free speech for women. Up to that 
time and before it, the women speakers had been 
hailed with mobs, brick-bats and stones. Angelina 
and Sarah Grimke and Abby Kelly had met that kind 
of warfare. The odium which the press poured out 
upon them was without stint, and the pulpit roused 
itself particularly in the effort to silence women. Free 
speech has been gained by the persistent fidelity of 
those earlier women, who made the way for all those 
who followed. I came fourteen or fifteen years after ; 
but when I held a meeting in Maiden , Mass . , the pastor 



264 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

of the Orthodox Congregational church, being asked 
to give notice of the meeting, (this meeting was un- 
der the auspices of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery 
Society ; Wm Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips 
were officers of the society,) this minister in Maiden 
held the notice up before his face and he said: "I 
am requested by Mr. Mowry to say that a hen .will 
undertake to crow like a cock at the Town Hall this 
afternoon at five o'clock. Anybody who wants to 
hear that kind of music will, of course, attend." So 
unpopular and unwelcome was the idea of a woman 
speaking in public, that, after years of effort by An- 
gelina and Sarah Grimke and Abby Kelly, that was 
the welcome that came to a younger worker. The 
consequence was, I had a very large meeting. Every- 
body came, and Mr. Mowry was asked what kind of 
a hen it was, and all about it; and altogether it was 
a very good advertisement of the meeting. 

Then see the different tone of the press. Deacon 
Samuel Bowles, enditor and founder of the Spring- 
field ' 'Republican,' ' a most excellent man, said of 
me in his own paper: "You she-hyena, don't you 
come here!" To-day the Springfield "Republican" is 
one of the staunchest advocates of woman suffrage, 
and it publishes a department every week concerning 
woman and her interests. 

Women can go anywhere now, and never in any 
place, perhaps not anywhere in this country, meet 
with a welcome like that which greeted the early 
speakers. Only a few months ago, the national W. 






FEMALE FIU)S0FY. 265 

C. T. U. met in Atlanta, Ga., where neither the tem- 
perance movement nor woman suffrage, certainly not 
suffrage, had been advocated; but when Mrs. Wal- 
lace, "the mother of Ben Hur," raised the question 
of woman's rights, a great audience that packed a 
large hall, arose almost as a body in response to her 
request, saying that they approved it. So you see, 
even at the South, and everywhere now, free speech 
is gained for women. Having gained that, in the 
long run everything else is gained for women ; be- 
cause when you can go and tell an intelligent and 
fair minded people the claim you have to make, in 
the long run you are sure to get it carried. 

The next gain is the right of education. In that 
earlier time, a learned woman was not at all accept- 
able. She was called a blue-stocking. Oberlin then 
was the only college open to women. It admitted 
women and negroes on the same terms as white men, 
and wore its share of odium for it. But after these 
forty years we now have Boston University, and 
Welleeiey and Smith and Byrn Mawr, and Vassar and 
Cornell in New York, and Michigan University, and 
the Western colleges everywhere, welcoming women. 

1 hen we have gained opportunities for occupation. 
In that earlier time, there were so few things that 
women could do to earn a living! I remember with 
what agony women stood, as in contracting chambers, 
and loeked out upon the world. The spinning-w T heel 
and the loom had ceased to be used in the house. 
That which had occupied the women was taken away, 



266 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

and something else had to come in its place ; but the 
women were not welcomed to anything else. If they 
entered other things, they were warned that they 
were getting out of their sphere. Those who urged 
women to take up new occupations were told that 
their effort was to get women out of their sphere, and 
that was flying in the face of Providence. And so, 
when women were driven to undertake occupations 

that hitherto had not been engaged in by women, they 
were met by opposition, ridicule and obstacles. Prin- 
ters said they would not work for anybody that would 
employ a woman to print. At the convention forty 
years ago, Abby H. Price read a paper that is curious 
to read to-day. She asked that more occupations 
should be opened to women. She asked that they 
might work in stores — where multitudes of women 
are now employed and nobody thinks anything about 
it. I remember the first woman who kept a store, so 
far as I know, in this State— Mrs. Young, of Lowell. 
She was obliged to earn her own living, and she said, 
"All women and children must wear shoes ;" and so 
she decided to open a little shoe store. She went to 
Lynn and bought the best stock of shoes she could 
find ; she got good material so that she could get 
good customers. She went back to Lowell, and, not 
willing to make an extensive venture, she took a few 
shelves in a store already occupied. When she had 
arranged her shoes and put out her sign, "Mrs. 
Young, Misses' and Childiens' Shoes/' she said she 
heard a loud guffaw outside ana people wondered 



FEMALE EILOSOEY. 267 

what kind of a looking woman it was who would keep 
a store. They thought a woman could not know 
enough to keep a store. Mrs. Tyndall, of Philadel- 
phia, carried on a china-ware business; her husband 
had been a china merchant. She sent ships to China, 
and enlarged the business, and carried it on, and it 
was a matter of newspaper comment, it was thought 
to be such a remarkable thing that a woman was keep- 
ing a store and sending ships to China. But now 
Mr. Carroll D. Wright, in his statistics of labor, 
reports nearly three hundred occupations open to 
women. Behold the change! It was necessary to go 
from city to city, and from State to State, creating 
in the women that wholesome discontent which made 
them dare to seek for those occupations which would 
pay them. How hard it was for the women in that 
earlier time. The women who sewed got such small 
pay for it, and the women who taught had such little 
compensation. I remember being a teacher. My 
first teaching was done for a dollar a week, and later, 
when I had sixteen dollars a month, a person said to 
me, "Why, what a good salary that is for a woman!" 
When my brother, who was receiving thirty dollars 
a month, fell ill, and I took his school for two weeks, 
the committee gave me $16 a month, because that 
was "enough for a woman." From teaching and 
sewing think now of the many lines of occupation 
that are free to women. How much is gained! But 
you do not find that there are too many. The women 
crowd each other still by keeping too much in the 



268 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

same lines. Margaret Fuller said, "Let women be 
sea-captains if they will." What she meant was, 
let them do anything they are fitted for. Whatever 
was fit to be done at all might be done by anybody 
who could do it well. The tools belong to those who 
can use them, and if women could use a tool, she 
had a right to use it. 

I never speak on this point without thinking of 
Harriet Hosmer, whom you all know, whose father 
lived in Watertown. She was an artist, and she 
wanted to study anatomy ; but there was not a med- 
ical school anywhere that would allow her to do so. 
She went all over New England and New York and 
the Middle States, and finally crossed the Mississippi 
river and went to Dr. McDowell, the dean of the 
Medical College in St. Louis. He told me about her 
coming to him, with her eager face, and how anxious- 
ly she watched to hear him say she might study anat- 
omy. She said to him, "I am an artist and need to 
study anatomy, but there is no medical school that 
will admit me. May I study anatomy in your col- 
lege?" Dr. McDowell was a slave-holder, and died 
in the Confederate service ; but he said to her, with 
all the chivalry of a Southern man: "You shall 
study anatomy in my college, and if anybody inter- 
feres with you, he will interfere with me first." 

There was this difficulty in regard to all the pro- 
fessions. Now the legal profession is open to 
women. The ministry is open — not very wide, but 
it is open. All these opportunities have been gained 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 269 

for women in these forty years ; not one of them 
existed before, and not one of them would have been 
regarded as possible. 

In the laws, perhaps we have gained still more, 
We found women at an infinite disadvantage under 
the laws. Wherever the word wife or woman or 
widow or mother occurred in the law, the word 
was almost sure to be surrounded with some disa- 
bility — with some cruelty, I think I may say. The 
law counted out in many of the States how many 
cups and saucers and spoons and knives and chairs 
a widow might have when her husband died. I 
have seen many a widow who took the cups she had 
bought before she was married and bought them 
again after her husband died, so as to have them 
legally, because she could not do otherwise. The 
law gave no married woman any right to a legal 
existence at all. It said she should have no legal 
existence . Her legal existence shall be ' ' suspended' ' 
during marriage. She could neither sue nor be 
sued; she could not own personal property. All the 
personal property she had at her marriage the law 
gathered up remorsely and put in the pocket of the 
man who married her, just as though it had never 
been hers in any way whatever. If she had a child 
born alive, the law took her real estate and gave her 
husband the use of that as long as he should live, and 
called it by the pleasant name of the "estate by the 
courtesy." When the husband died, the law gave 
his widow the use of a third of his real estate, and it 



270 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

was called "the widow's encumbrance " While the 
law dealt thus with her in regard to her property, it 
dealt with her more hardly in regard to her chil- 
dren. No married mother could have any right to 
her child, and in this dear old * Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts she does not have it to-day, as long 
as she lives with her husband. We have asked the 
Legislature to secure to mothers the same legal right 
to their children that the father has, but we could 
not get it. That old-time law which allowed a 
widow to stay only forty days in the house of her 
deceased husband without paying rent, remains to- 
day. We have asked the Legislature year after 
year, without avail, to decree that a woman need not 
be turned out unless she pays rent, when her hus- 
band who has helped her can help her no longer . 
But a wife can now own all the personal property 
she had before she was married. She can own all 
she acquires after marriage. In the old time she 
could not; if a woman earned a dollar a day by 
scrubbing, she brought it home and her husband 
had the right to take the dollar and go and get 
drunk with it and beat her afterward. It was his 
dollar. If a woman wrote a book, the copyright of 
the book belonged to her husband, not to her. If 
she broke her leg and her husband sued to recover 
damages, the money belonged to him, because her 
leg was his leg. Now she owns her own legs. She 
has now a right to her own clothes, though we peti- 
tioned the Legislature for ten years to get the law. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 271 

The law* are •hanging and are growing better in 
many ways. The old ducking stool, to which, when 
a woman was worn with hard work and with bear- 
ing many children, and talked a little sharply, her 
husband had the right to take her, is nearly abol- 
ished. Yet, within twelve months, one man in Dela- 
ware brought his wife to the ducking stool, and 
another in Canada proposed to bring his, but the 
judge said he doubted whether he had the right to. 
So public sentiment is not smiling on the ducking 
stool any longer. 

We have not only gained in the fact that the laws 
are modified (and we are very grateful to the men 
who have done it), but we have gained in the fact that 
women have acquired a certain amount of political 
power. We have now in twenty-two States school 
suffrage for women. In most cases the school suf- 
frage is much larger than here in Massachusetts, 
Here women can only vote for members of the school 
committee, but im many States they vote on all 
questions that appertain to schools. In twenty-two 
States women have school suffrage. Forty years 
ago there was but one ; Kentucky allowed widows 
who had children of school age to vote on school 
questions. Then we have also in Kansas municipal 
suffrage . There women vote in every city and town 
election, and a letter has come to us from ex-Gov- 
ernor Robinson of Kansas, saying that it works well 
and there is no idea of repealing it. Then in Wyo- 
ming we have achieved full suffrage for women. For 



272 FEMALE EILOSOEY. 

twenty-one years women have been voting there just 
the same as men, and two senators now sit in Con- 
gress, Carey and Warren, whom women helped 
elect. From Senator Warren came a telegram this 
morning to say how thoroughly well woman suffrage 
had operated in Wyoming, and he could give no 
better word for Massachusetts than to advise her to 
follow the example of Wyoming. Having now 
twenty-two States where women have school suffrage, 
municipal suffrage in one State, and full suffrage 
in another, a State larger than all New England, 
you see how much has been gained. And these 
things could not have occurred except as the great 
movement for women has brought them about. 

Jn the church, how different things are now from 
what they used to me ! I remember very well how 
in the church at West Brookfield, Mass., many years 
ago, a question arose about the anti-slavery views 
of one of the deacons. I was very young. I was a 
church member, but did not know that Women did 
not vote in the church; and so, when an important 
vote was taken, in the innocence and ignorance of 
my heart, I held up my hand to vote with the rest, 
supposing that it was all right. But the minister, 
tall and large, pointing over to me, said to the man 
counting the votes, "Don't you count her." And 
the man counting the votes looked a little surprised 
himself, and said "Isn't she a member?" "Oh, 
yes," he said, "she is a member, but she isn't a vot- 
ing member." And the scorn that was in his tones! 



FEMALE FttOgOFY. 2?3 

I felt it to the tips of my toes. That afternoon 
they took six other votes, and every time I held my 
hand up high and every time they did not count it. 
All the same I held my hand up. But to-day look 
at the great Methodist Episcopal church ; its mem- 
bers have voted by more than 80,000 majority in 
favor of admitting women to its highest councils. 
See in how many churches concessions are made 
looking toward equal rights for women, and then 
consider what it was in that time forty years ago, 
when one uncounted hand was the only protest 
against the injustice done to women. All through 
the churches the change for the better is coming. 
See the question of 'deaconesses in the Presbyterian 
church. In Pennsylvania and New York the general 
assembly has made the overture, advising the smaller 
bodies to vote for women as deaconesses for the 
help they may give the church. It is rich to read 
the reports and see how some people still hold to the 
old idea, and also to see coming in more and more 
the force of a liberal spirit that stands all the time 
for equal human rights. That idea of equal rights 
is in the church. It is in the State. It is every- 
where, and the gains can hardly be reckoned up in 
a single speech on the platform. But all these im- 
portant gains, in freedom of speech, in opportunities 
for education, in wider choice of occupations, in the 
professions, in better conditions of the law, and the 
great movement in the churches, have not come of 
themselves. They could not have come of them- 

17 



274 tfEMAtE #IU)SOFY. 

selves. They could not have come without a great 
deal of effort, but they have come. They are a part 
of the eternal order, and they have come to stay. 
Now what we need is but to continue to speak the 
truth fearlessly, and to add to our number those who 
will turn the scale to the side of equal and full jus- 
tice in all things. 



OPPONENTS TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 



Z> 



ANG'S brewery was headquarters for the op- 
position to equal suffrage in Colorado, and the 
leaflets they sent out were mailed from a prominent 
liquor house. 

The brewers of Chicago in convention assembled 
(1891) resolved against woman suffrage, saying it 
was the last hope of the Prohibitionists. Congress- 
man Breckenridge would never think of trying to 
ride into office on women's ballots. They would make 
the standard a "white life for two." Fifty con- 
gressmen were interviewed in 1893, in Washington 
by Florence Huntley, for the New York Press. 
Breckenridge was one of them. To the question, 
"Was he in favor of woman suffrage?" he replied 
with emphasis: "I have no leaning toward this so 
called universal suffrage, which would affect the 
prssent relations of husband and wife." What a 
guardian of the home, the friendless, the orphan 
and the young girl! HoW much interest he has in 
them. The relations and chastity of the homes are 



tfEMALK PltOSOFY. 275 

dependent on too many representatives such as 
Breckenridge. And if ever the homes needed the 
ballot to make them pure, holy and just, it is now. 
Bad men know that woman's ballot means the down- 
fall of their craft and they will resist it till the end. 
They do not doubt the justice of woman suffrage, it 
is the expediency that troubles them. The argu- 
ments and means used to carry ~their points against 
the movement are so insulting, coarse and disgrace- 
ful that often those who sympathize with them ar3 
turned over to the other side. One paper in Boston 
that was an "anti" became so disgusted with the 
meanness of its methods used for the defeat of its 
bill in the last legislature that it came out denounc- 
ing them in the strongest terms. There is not an 
argument used against woman voting that cannot be 
urged with propriety and justice against msn 
voting. 

(1.) Would bad women vote? 
So do bad men, and there are more of them. 
(2.) Are women ignorant in politics? 
Yes. But not nearly so much so as men in gen- 
eral. 

(3.) Is the home a woman's place? 

Where is the man's? Is it in secret societies and 
saloons? 

(4.) Would a woman be iufluenced by her hus- 
band, brothers, father or friends? 

And are not men influenced by politicians for dol- 
lars and drinks? 



2?6 FEMALE FltOSOFV. 

(5.) Are the polls not a fit place for a woman? 

Why have two standards of morality? What is 
good for the goose ought to be good for the gander. 

(6.) Would women not read and consider both 
sides of political questions? 

Neither do men do it. 

(7.) Would sympathy govern women? 

Not more than the saloon governs men. 

(8.) Would passion control women? No more 
than prejudice controls men. 

(9.) Are women too busy? Why should men be 
less so? 

(10.) Is politics beyond her sphere? Has not a 
woman as much right to decide a man's sphere as 
he to decide her's? 

(11.) Are women not able to fight? Many men 
are not, and yet they vote. 

(12.) Is she the weaker sex? What does sex 
have to do with voting? Give her more room for 
outdoor exercise to develop and strengthen her. 
The conditions for the development have not hereto- 
fore been equal. 

The common objections to woman suffrage are all 
old hackneyed prejudices fossilized centuries ago. 
And men do not give any good objection to it, for 
the same reason that Jack did not eat his breakfast. 

The reasons given by some men remind us of a 
story told during the last cholera scare, about a boy 
whose little sister had found an apple and was about 
to eat it. Her brother rushed up to her with a face 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 277 

of horror and consternation and assured her that the 
apple was green, that the cholera was coming, and 
that if she ate it she would have the cholera and 
die. The child, in alarm, threw down the fruit, 
and her brother at once picked it up and pro- 
ceeded to eat. She watched him with round eyes 
for a few minutes, and then asked, " Won't the 
cholera catch you?" "No," answered the urchin, 
with his mouth full, it is only after little girls. 
Boys don't have cholera." It is only women that 
they want to keep from the ballot box. 

The platform of the Liquor Dealers of Illinois, 
says: "We have a right to demand protection for 
our trade." And the mothers' platform also de- 
clares: "We have a right to demand protection for 
our boys." 

Feelix has been keeping his eyes open and has ob- 
served that generally speaking, the opponents to 
woman suffrage can generally be depended on for 
being on the wrong side of all reforms and opposing 
the right, the good and the Godly. 

"Horace Greeley, speaking for his own section, 
once said: 'I do not say that every Democrat is a 
horse thief, but I do say that every horse thief is a 
Democrat,' and I do not say that every opponent of 
woman suffrage is a scoundrel, but I do say that 
every scoundrel is an opponent of woman suf- 
frage.' In opposing it Doctor Parkhurst will not 
only be accompanied by the respectable and formal- 
ized conservatism of his State, but by every saloon, 






278 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 



pauper, unrepentant convict and scoundrel in the 
State without exception . They know what is against 
them if the Doctor does not know what is for him 
and his high standards*. "—Selected. 

After several years experience of equal suffrage, 
Chief Justice Greene, of Washington, said: 

"The opponents of woman suffrage in this Terri- 
tory find themselves allied with a solid phalanx of 
gamblers, pimps, prostitutes, drunkards and drunk- 
ard-makers—with all in each of these classes who 
know the interest of the class and vote according 
to it." 

When respectable people find themselves in alli- 
ance with all rascaldom, it is worth their while to 
pause and consider whether they have not taken a 
mistaken position. 

Dr. Charles Parkhurst in account with the women : 



DR. 

To 

"She is not posted well 
enough to vote." 

"She should be saved 
from such druggery." 



' ' She is not interested in 
political affairs." 

"Her home cares are 
more than sufficient for 
her strength." 



CR. 



By 



"She should post 
men how to vote." 



the 



"She should make house 
to house visitations to 
awaken interest." . 

"She should distribute 
literature in these points . ' ' 

"Let her organize in 
large numbers and meet 
weekly for the discussion 
of these questions," 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 



279 



"She 
dragged 



should not be 
into the miry 
pools of politics." 



"She would lose her 
sweet womanly influence . ' ' 



"Dear women, we could 
not do without them ! The 
church, the home, the so- 
cial life— they are the 
light and joy of all, but 
never let the smirch of 
the caucus or of the elec- 
tioneering booth rest upon 
the hand that rocks the 
cradle. 

Total, 94 words. 



"Serve lunches as near 
as the law allows to the 
polling place." 

"Plead with the men on 
the street and in the home 
to vote right. It is your 
influence that counts." 

"Women of New York, 
the success of this elec- 
tion rests upon you! If 
the mothers in our city sit 
by idle, indiflterent, then 
our cause will languish 
and "Wrong will be for- 
ever on the Throne." Re- 
member it is your homes 
we are pleading for." 

Total, 116 words. 
94 



Balance, 22 words in favor of women, due on de- 
mand, thirty days after date, interest, the highest 
legal rate in the State from which the demand is 
made. Selah. 



280 FEMALE FILOSOKY. 

A CALL TO THE W. C. T. U. 

By Mrs. Jennie E. Graves. 



WOMAN has been defeated in every real en- 
counter. Why ? Because the weapon of 
the ballot, that is so powerful in the hands 
of her enemy, is denied her ; and she must fight, if 
she wars at all, with empty hands. 

O, shame upon the civilization which has become 
so corrupt that women are compelled in self defense 
of all they hold dear to rise up against its sins, and 
do battle with hands fettered by the galling chains 
of past ages! 

Shame upon those FEMALES who rattle their 
chains, seeking to drown the appeal of the nobler 
spirited of their sex for justice ! 

Shame upon legislators, who cover with the soft 
glove of political favor this rotting cancer, which is 
eating out the heart of National prosperity ! Shame 
upon the executive, whose hand could be used to 
help desecrate the school-houses ; nay, worse, the 
house of God itself, with the fumes of liquor shops 
in direct opposition to the will of the people, that a 
"Shoreham" might not be deprived of its share of 
blood money from the sale of alcohol ! And double 
shame upon the Christian voters of the country, who 
stay with parties so lost to all sense of what the 
rights of a free people mean. My friends, I see to- 
day but one solution of this problem. One force 
strong enough to overthrow the enemy and destroy 
him root and branch, 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 281 

Let me illustrate it by a legend which tells how, in 
the days of the Roman Empire, an earthquake rent 
the earth apart near the imperial city. Upon 
consulting an oracle, it declared that the chasm 
never would close till the most priceless thing Rome 
held was cast into it. Gold without measure, and 
gems above price, were sacrificed in vain. At last 
Rome's most heroic youth plunged down the black 
abyss, and it was closed forever. 

So it is with us of to-day. The foul wound of in- 
temperance stretches its putrid length across the 
bosom of Christian civilization, and not till the most 
priceless gem of the 19th century, the womanhood 
of America, shall be able to crystallize its will in bal- 
lots at the polls, will that festering wound be healed. 
Until this victory is won, and women are armed as 
are the whisky sellers and all who support the liquor 
trade are armed, not the outmost gate of the ene- 
my's citadel will be broken down, though the noise 
of our trumpets reach heaven. 

It is time, beloved, that we awake to the fact that 
the hour has struck when the W. C. T. U. must swing 

the whole splendid force of the organization towards 
placing the crown of suffrage upon woman's brow. 
It is time that we realize that until woman, with 
the Bible in her bosom and the ballot in her hand, 
shall march with holy courage to the polls, and meet 
the enemy where he is to be found, he will sit behind 
his defenses, and while destroying us and our loved 
ones, "laugh at our calamity, and mock when our 
fear cometh," 



282 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 

We have done noble work in the past, seeking to 
purify the black stream of vice ; putting a dam here 
and there across the river of intemperance, to be 
swept away at flood tide, but we have come to the 
parting of the ways, and our next step must carry 
us clear over body and soul on to suffrage ground, 
or from now on we will be only marking time. 

Did you ever see a company of soldiers, standing 
still, perfecting drill? Nationally and locally, we 
have drilled long enough. THE TIME HAS COME 
FOR ACTION, and to act we must be ARMED. 

But it is urged, men have debased the privileges 
of the ballot; they have sold it for money. They 
have sold themselves for it. They have bartered for 
it every principle that should have been held sacred. 
Will not women put the power when gained to as 
base uses? The answer is found where women hold 
the balance of power. Look at their kingdom, the 
home! The power that rules her there, and makes 
the homes of our country its holiest possession, will 
sway her at the polls. Look at our churches, two- 
thirds of the members women. The power that 
keeps her at the wounded side of her Lord will help 
her to bind up the wounds of her country. 

As an organization we have defined our position 
on this question. It remains for us to make it the 
burning question, till the prize is ours. The task is 
no light one. To clear the scales of ignorance and 
selfishness from our own eyes, that we may see how 
to help others — to unswathe from ourselves as a sex 






FEMALE FILOSOFY. 283 

the swaddling bands of social customs and ancient 
traditions — to learn and teach the new gospel of the 
ballot, will be seed sown in the name of Jesus for the 
healing of the nations.' y 



284 FEMALE FlIvOSOFY. 

HOW TO WIN WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 



BEGIN to agitate and keep on agitating until 
you get what you want. The real opponents 
to woman suffrage are comparatively few. The 
great majority of men and women have never given 
the subject any consideration. We could count on 
our fingers the real opponents to this cause we have 
met during the last year. Nearly every one admits 
not having given the subject any thought. The 
prejudices, customs, usages and traditions of our 
forefathers bound them in a strait-laced jacket, so 
they did not dare turn either to the right or left lest 
they break something. But this corset of tradi- 
tions is about worn out now and ready to go to 
pieces, and all that is needed is a little stirring 
exercise, agitation and education and a new reform 
dress will be doomed. 

Advocates of any cause scarcely realize the im- 
portance of having their cause brought before the 
public in the newspapers of the country. They fear 
opposition and criticism. Better be opposed and 
criticised than no discussion at all. People will 
takes sides and prejudices will be broken down and 
the real reasons for men's positions will come out, 
and the right will prevail. 

If the W. C. T. U's. would secure a column or 
more in the newspapers available to them, they 
would accomplish much. Many do this, but not so 
many as might, And again those who furnish 



■ 




FEMALE FILOSOFY. 285 

news for these columns should at least report 
the news on the suffrage question. The editor might 
object to opinions on the question, but not many will 
object to the news on it. And sometimes this very- 
news converts the editors. We have in mind the 
editor of the most influential paper in a large State, 
who started this way. He first forbade anything 
but news. After a few months he found himself 
writing long editorials on the subject. 

Never let a W. C. T. U. convention, great or small, 
go without something on the subject. There is 
scarcely a popular lecturer of reputation, now, who 
does not weave into his lecture woman's wrongs, or 
rights if you wish. And it is always done with 
applause. And if this be true, why do the women 
need to fear to refer to it in their meetings? 

If the women in their W. C. T. U. weekly meet- 
ings would have allotted a certain time, and have 
some one appointed to read something on this sub- 
ject at such meetings, it would accomplish much. 
And there is nothing better for this purpose than 
"Female Filosofy." One woman writes : "I took my 
'Filosofy' to the meeting last Friday, and as we have 
readings, I read several pages, and they were all 
captivated with it. And one of the ladies arose 
immediately and moved that I continue my reading 
at each meeting until I had finished the book." 
Another one writes: "I heard some quotations read 
from your book, at our meeting last week, and we 
enjoyed it very much. Please send me one." Van- 



286 FEMALE FILOSOEY. 

delia Varnum writes in the Corner Stone : "Female 
Filosofy is crowded with points and every point 
bristles. If you want a good laugh, get it. If you 
want something bright for your W. C. T. U. meet- 
ing, get it. If you want to interest your children 
in a righteous cause, get it. If you want to convert 
a friend to woman suffrage, get it. If you want 
to shame out the opponents of equal rights, do not 
fail to have them read it." 

Anothor important work is petitioning the legis- 
latures. The people must ask for what they want. 
In almost every State, school, municipal and town- 
ship suffrage is regulated by the Legislature, and 
not by the constitution. 

In all States Presidential Suffrage is regulated by 
the Legislature, under the express words of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, viz. : "Each State shall appoint, 
in such manner as the Legislature thereof may 
direct, a certain number of electors, etc." This 
power is not derived from the State constitution. 

In all States the Legislature may submit to the 
voters a constitutional amendment extending suf- 
frage in all elections to women, either on the sam 
terms as are now required of men, or on educational 
or property qualifications approved by the Legis- 
lature. 

There should be a State enrollment officer in the 
W. C. T. U. and other organizations for suffrage. 
This officer should see to it that an enrollment officer 
is at work in every district, county, township, city 



• 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 287 

and village, and when the people who are in favor of 
it express themselves as such, it will make it unwise 
for any one who is opposed to woman suffrage to run 
for a legislative office. Here is the form of a peti- 
tion to have signed : 

We, the undersigned legal voters of the — 

Representative district, County, State, 

believing that intelligent women, interested in good 
government, should have the legal right to vote, 
hereby promise to do what we can consistently with 
our other political duties, to secure the nomination 
and election of State Representatives and State Sen- 
ator from this district in favor of woman suffrage. 

Signed, Date, Name, Number, Street, Postoffice. 

On the opposite page is printed a similar promise, 
beginning : 

We, the undersigned women citizens of 

Representative District, County, State, 

•tc, etc., as above. 

Send to the "Woman's Journal," No. 3 Park 
street, Boston, for the enrollment books, and further 
instructions. 

Whenever the suffragists get a majority of the 
Legislature and a Governor that will sign the bill on 
their side, they are pretty sure to get either woman 
suffrage directly from the Legislature or have it sub- 
mitted to the people to vote on it at some future 
time By all means get as many men interested in 
the work as possible By the world at large the 
woman suffrage cause lias been, and still is popu- 



288 FEMALE FILOSO^Y. 

larly regarded as only a "woman movement," or as 
a movement of women against men. This impres- 
sion that it is an "anti-man" movement has retarded 
its advance and postpones its triumph. It is false 
in fact. Woman suffrage has among its supporters 
as many men as women, and this will be shown by a 
systematic enrollment of both. 

Mrs. Carrie Lane Chapman tells how Colorado 
was carried for woman suffrage : 

"With much sentiment already existing all over 
the State, the only thing that was necessary was to 
gather it up and organize it. This was done by a 
systematic plan. A meeting was held in every 
county in the State where there was a population 
sufficient to warrant it, and a league was formed 
there, with an executive committee of seven. This 
committee always consisted of four men and three 
women, or three men and four women; and right 
here is a lesson for every State in the Union. We 
shall never carry woman suffrage anywhere until 
men and women learn to work together. Our women 
seem to say to the men, 'We are running this asso- 
ciation. We shall be very glad of your help, but we 
do not want to have you hold any of the offices nor 
take the lead in the matter at all.' In Colorado, 
fortunately, the women did not make this mistake. 
They were very glad to have the men take the lead 
in the campaign. Men always have more political 
influence than women, because they are voters. The 
men took the lead in the associations, and it was 
because they did that at last we won. 



_- 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 289 

The women in each locality were canvassed, and 
a week or two before the election a petition from a 
large majority of the women was published in the 
papers, asking the voters to vote for equal suffrage. 

"The men were also canvassed b and were classified 
as opposed, doubtful, or in favor. The opponents 
were let alone, and the doubtful were labored with. 
The editors of all the newspapers were seen, and the 
press of the State was on our side 

The best thing you can do to carry woman suf- 
frage in your State would be to import a few hun- 
dred people from "Wyoming and plant them in all 
your cities and towns. Next, go to your labor organ- 
izations. Get all the friends of equal suffrage to- 
gether, and organize them into a strong band that 
can dictate terms to political parties and to candi- 
dates, as our enemies do." 

By all means present every legislator and editor 
with a copy of Female Filosofy. Scatter tracts and 
speeches knee deep all over the country. Use the 
press, the platform and the pulpit wherever it is 
possible to do so. 

On one of the anniversaries of Bunker Hill, so 
great was the crowd that, as it surged to and fro, 
there was danger that the platform on which the 
speakers were should be overturned. Appeal after 
appeal was made to the people to sway back and 
save the platform, but in vain. When all appeals 
failed, Daniel Webster, who was there, arose, and 
cried to the people : "Move back! Yield! Save the 






290 FEMALE EILOSOFY. 

platform." The reply was : "We cannot move back. 
It is impossible !" Lifting his stentorian voice 
again, he shouted with electric effect, "On Bunker 
Hill, nothing is impossible t" Thrilled by his words, 
the crowd did move back, and the platform was 
saved. 

Using this incident as an illustration, I would say 
to you, women of Bunker Hill, that in this cause of 
yours, with principle upon your side, and with a 
splendid federation of women with forceful and opu- 
lent lives upon your side, and with Wyoming and 
Colorado cheering you on, "Nothing is impossible!" 

Federate, consolidate, agitate, canvass, memorial- 
ize, petition, vote! 



FEMALE FIL.OSOFY. 291 



The title is the weakest thing about it.— <N. Y. Voice. 

It is, indeed "much in little.'' 1 Whoeyer desires to study the suf- 
frage question and be armed against its opponents should have it. 
I have given my copy to a young man preparing a speech for the 
amendment campaign in Kansas. I could give him nothing more 
helpful. — Helen Gougar, LaFayette, Ind. 

Quite an addition to our suffrage literature. It has an extra 
value, treating the subject from a wian's standpoint, hence the 
element of selfishness is eliminated. His treatment of the Bible 
on the subject is felicitous and will have great weight as coming 
from a clergyman. Mr9. Louisa Southworth, 

Supt. of Franchise Ohio State W. C. T. U. 

"Is a woman more unwomanly in protecting her children than a 
hen is unhenly in protecting her chicks?," is the opening sentence 
to the preface in "Female Filosofy." The author says: "In most 
states, the following persons cannot vote, viz: Criminals, idiots, in 
sane men and sane women." Fact, sentiment and humor are hap- 
pily interspersed in his very interesting volume, which brushes 
away the cobwebs of prejudice. — Mansfield (O.) News. 

The book is crowded with points and every point bristles. If 
you want a good laugh, get it. If you want something bright for 
your W. C. T. U. meeting, get it. If you want to interest your 
children in a righteoua.cause, get it. If you want to convert a 
friend to woman's suffrage, get it. If you want to shame out the 
opponents of equal rights, do not fail to have them read it. — 
Vandelia Varnum, in the W. C. T. U. column, of The Corner 
Stone. 

It is filled with solid arguments against the objections frequent- 
ly made to the right of woman to a voice and a vote in the gov- 
ernment that holds her amenable to its laws equally with man; it 
gives a brief history of the rapid growth of the sentiment in favor 
of woman suffrage in the last forty yeais, contrasting the time 
when women who essayed to speak at a public meeting were hailed 
with mobs, brickbats and stones, their meetings spoken of by lead- 
ing pastois as "hen conventions," with the present conditions, 
where pulpit and press are equally interested in the work and 
results of women's conventions. The author is a clergyman and 
knows whereof he speaks. There is a vein of humor running all 
through the book, and the arguments are unanswerable. If you 
want "much in a little," a good laugh and the most complete refu- 
tation of all the reasons ever inyented why woman should not 
share equally with man the duties and responsibilities of life, get 
it —Vie H. Campbell, Pres, Wis. W.T.C. U. in the Wis. Motor. 



292 FEMALE FILOSOFY. 



"Excellent. — Marion H. Dunman, Pres. Iowa W. C, T. U. 

1 have read it over with much interest and amusement. It 
certainly puts that side of the question in an effectively popular 
way. I am on the other side, — Rev. Wm. E. Roe, Marietta, O. 

Just the thing at the right time, and in the right place. It is 
big enough, and little enough. It reminds me of a barbed wire 
fence, it is so full of points. — Rev. B. F. Danford, Doherty, O. 

I consider it most excellent. Right to the point. The author 
understands the question, and his ideas are clear cut and forcible 
and ring with no uncertain sound.«*»Mrs. Florence D. Richards, 
(Lecturer for the I. (X G. T.) 

Please allow me to congratulate you tnosthearily on your vent- 
ure. The book will do much good. I shall read every sentence 
of it with great interest. — Rev. Gideon P. Macklin, Prohibition 
Candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1893. 

"Female Filosofy" is a capital setting forth of the question of 
woman suffrage, and ought to be in the hands of every thoughtful 
and intelligent man and woman. — Josephine R. Nichols, Indi- 
anapolis, Supt Exposition World's W.C. T. U. 

"Feelix Feeler" has "Fished Out" a weight of sound "Filosofy" 
and " i'ried" to a crisp all the opponents to woman's enfranchise- 
ment. It will be a book of profit to every reader of it, — Henri- 
etta G. Moore, President Ohio State W. C. T. U., Springfield, O. 

Between its attractive covers a fund of bright sayings and sound 
reasoning on every phase of the question of equal rights. Besides 
this it contains the condensed expression of great minds on the 
subject of woman suffrage from Plato down to Josiah Allen's wife. 
-^Cumberland (O .) Echo. 

I have never read anything en Che suffrage question so thor- 
oughly to the point, or written so interestingly and forcibly as 
Female Filosofy by Feelix Feeler. It ought to be read in a 
million homes, for with such literature bristling with interest, 
always logical and convincing, the cause of Equal Suffrage would 
soon be an accomplished fact. David H. Burweix. 

The Chicago Inter-Ocean violates no confidence in saying that 
Feelix Feeler is a nom de plume. The author is Rev. L. E. 
Keith, Caldwell, O. His little paper coverlet is richly worth the 
25 cents. The woman question has seldom been more pointedly 
presented than in his quaint style. American men, by the million, 
should read this little book. The ballot is coming to the women of 
Aa&erica. It today needs her purifiying influence. 



FEMALE FILOSOFY. 293 

Shafts of truth, well and forcibly aimed. — The Pres. of Waynes 
burg College, (Pa.) 

Dear Bro. Keith. — You have written a capital book. It will 
make many converts to a righteous cause. 

Dr. J. W. Bashford, Pres. of O. Wea. Univ'y. 

1 wish J could place one in the hands of every opponent to the 
cause, and be assured he would read it. Then Florida would be 
another star in our flag. — Ella C. Chamberlain, Pres, Fla. W. C. 
T.U. 

Thanks for your racy, witty, and withal philosopical words. 
Cannot the Constiutional Convention of New York, and the State 
of Kansas be "sown knee keep" with the conquering argument? — 
Mary A. Woodbridge, Cor. Sec. Nat'l W. C. T. U. 

An argument for "woman's rights" made by a Presbyterian 
minister who chooses to write anonymously. It is in much 
the same style as the books of "Samantha Allen," .from whom 
many apt quotations are made. The whole field is coyered with 
short, pithy chapters and sharp, caustic sentences. The pamphlet 
will no doubt have many readers. — Herald and Presbj ter, Cin- 
cinnati, O. 

It is a grand and a good book. It touches the "right spot" 
every time. Wish I were the author of it. Hope it will have 
10,000,000 circulation in this country. I shall recommend it in 
my lecture work and th. "ugh my paper. I shall take the liberty 
of quoting from its pages t my lecture tal^s. — Hastily yours, 
Howard Garleton TRnv, The Popular Lecturer, "Iowa's Poet 
Laureate," 

Every opponent of woman suffrage ought to read "Female Fi- 
losofy." They will find their objections answered in such a hu- 
morous, quaint way, but nevertheless with such force and unan- 
swerable argument as to take all the wind out of their sails. 
Friends of the reform will be delighted with the splendid presen 
tation of sound sense, bright sayings, and keen logic. — John A. 
Nicholls, Poet, Author and Lecturer, Lowell, Mass. 

My Dear Siri — I write to thank you for your wonderful book, 
"Female Filosofy," which is at hand. I consider it one of the 
best things produced on the suffrage question; full, .not' only of 
"filosofy," but of logic of the keenest edge, fun with pith and 
point, seasoned with sound sense and in such compact shape that 
whoever will take it up will read it, and reading must be con- 
vinced. I wish you could put it into the hands of every legislator* 
every voter, every woman in the State, Very Truly, 

Your Mother Stewart, (Leader of the Temperance Crusade,) 



^fc— ^ I III 



